Image: from Marinapsuvof X @marinapsuv
By Open Chronicle Staff with Agencies
Wednesday, February 25, 2026
JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil — The death toll from the catastrophic rains that have battered southeastern Brazil rose to 36 on Wednesday, as rescue teams in the state of Minas Gerais race against time to locate dozens of people still missing beneath mud and debris.
The cities of Juiz de Fora and Ubá have emerged as the epicenters of the disaster. Following a Monday night deluge that saw nearly double the typical monthly rainfall in a matter of hours, entire neighborhoods have been decimated by landslides and the overflow of local rivers.
🇧🇷 Death toll from flooding & landslides has risen to 30 in Minas Gerais, Brazil — 40 people still missing
Federal and state rescue teams are using sniffer dogs and heavy equipment to search for survivors in the flooded wreckage
State of calamity is declared. Meteorologists… pic.twitter.com/NKBhKY4JDG
— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) February 25, 2026
A “Scene of War”
In Juiz de Fora, a city of over half a million, Mayor Margarida Salomão declared a state of public calamity, describing the situation as “extreme” and “unprecedented.” At least 20 major landslides were reported across the city, with one massive slide in the Bethânia district sweeping away a dozen homes while residents slept.
“It is a scene out of a war zone,” said one local firefighter. “We are working with sniffer dogs and heavy machinery, but the volume of mud is so high that we must move with extreme precision to avoid harming any potential survivors trapped in air pockets.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, state authorities confirmed that 36 people have lost their lives across the region. However, that number is expected to climb, with officials reporting at least 43 people still missing in Juiz de Fora alone.
🇧🇷BRAZIL FLOODS: 83 DEAD, 111 MISSING
Catastrophic floods in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have displaced 850,000, injured hundreds and destroyed countless buildings, roads, bridges.
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 6, 2024
Thousands Displaced
The floods have left an estimated 3,000 people homeless or displaced. In Ubá, social media footage captured the harrowing scale of the disaster, showing elderly residents floating on mattresses after water invaded a local care home and city streets transformed into raging brown torrents.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva addressed the nation via social media, confirming that federal security forces and humanitarian aid are being surged to the region. “Our focus is the restoration of basic services and providing immediate support for those who have lost everything,” the President stated.
Record-Breaking Rain
According to Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology (INMET), this has officially become the rainiest February in Juiz de Fora’s recorded history. The city has seen over 580 millimeters (23 inches) of rain this month, more than twice the historical average.
The disaster follows a grim pattern of extreme weather in Brazil. Climate experts have noted that the “local summer” rainy season, which runs from December to March, has become increasingly volatile, leading to high-fatality events like the 2024 floods in Rio Grande do Sul and the 2022 Petrópolis disaster.
Search Continues Amid New Alerts
While the rain eased slightly on Wednesday morning, allowing for more intensive search-and-recovery operations, meteorologists have issued fresh alerts for the coming 48 hours. With the soil already saturated and more downpours forecast, officials are warning residents in high-risk hillside areas to remain in emergency shelters.
Classes remain suspended across all municipal schools in the affected zones as buildings are repurposed to house the thousands of “desalojados”, those forced to flee their homes by the rising waters.