Of this number of dead, 48 bodies were found in the city of São Sebastião and one in Ubatuba.
Searches entered their fifth day this Thursday. Firefighters, civil defense personnel and volunteers continue their exploration without interruption.
Such missions occur especially in the neighborhoods on the south coast of São Sebastião, such as Vila Sahi, the area where most of the victims of the tragedy are concentrated, and Joquihi.
The number of disappeared should be higher than 25, according to an estimate by Guilherme Derete, the Brazilian state’s public security minister.
“It’s not a pessimistic projection, but a realistic expectation that there may be more casualties based on reports by firefighters and the perception of whoever was at the scene,” Melt said.
He explained that “the disappeared are the ones who informed their relatives that their relative did not return to their homes.”
The São Sebastian Command Center had records of 36 missing persons.
Of this total number, the minister said, “there was a comparison with the identification list of dead bodies and 11 people have been identified.”
But, according to the reports of the residents, the residents who will be with the whole family there in the building, especially in Barra do Sahi (in São Sebastião), their houses may have been damaged and buried.
“There may be a possibility that some people did not miss one and that these were burial victims,” Melt added. “We do this examination because we were there talking to the living.”
The storms caused flooding, landslides and cut off sections of the Rio Santos, Mogi Bertioga and Tamoyos highways.
According to the Civil Defense, the amount of precipitation in 24 hours this weekend exceeded what was expected for the entire month of February in three of the four cities on the north coast: São Sebastião, Ilabela, Caraguatatuba and Ubatuba.
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