Flooding on highway leaves drivers stranded in Duque de Caxias

Flooding on the Washington Luís Highway (BR-040), at km 113 in Duque de Caxias, in Baixada Fluminense, has left drivers stranded since the early morning of this Sunday, 14th, after a storm that hit the region. The pocket of water prevents the progress of vehicles and walls dividing the lanes were even broken to allow those who were “islanded” to return.

The storm in the capital and cities of Baixada left eleven people dead between the night of Saturday, 13th, and Sunday morning. Neighborhoods recorded flooding and flash floods, and victims died from drowning, being buried or struck by electrical shocks.

In a statement, Companhia de Concessão Rodoviária Juiz de Fora-Rio, which manages BR-040, said that all of the concessionaire's operational resources “are mobilized to minimize the situation, caused by the flooding that does not subside at km 113 towards RJ”.

“Medical rescue teams are also on the route to assist users. After the opening of the reversible, the challenge, with the support of the PRF, was to guide these stranded vehicles closest to the flood to return in the opposite direction and take the reversible”, declared the company. “But as many trailers are in the way, making maneuvering difficult, additional machinery is being mobilized to make another opening in the lane division and remove the stranded vehicles closest to the flood,” he added.

Emergency situation in the capital of Rio de Janeiro

The mayor of the capital of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes (PSD) declared an emergency situation in the city “due to the impacts and damage caused by the rains”, as announced by the municipal management this Sunday afternoon. “With the declaration of an emergency situation, the mobilization of all municipal bodies is authorized to act in response actions necessary to reduce the effects caused by the rains”, highlighted the city hall.

Heráclito Alves, meteorologist at the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet), explained that storms in the Southeast between Friday night and Saturday night had already been predicted since last week. On Friday, heavy rain left two people dead in São Paulo.

He detailed that a cold front advanced across the country and was associated with an area of ​​low pressure. “The result of this is the formation of storm clouds and a lot of rain. Furthermore, we had very high temperatures yesterday, the weather was very muggy, which helped to further intensify the rains,” he said.

The Anchieta meteorological station reached an accumulated 259.2 millimeters of rain in a 24-hour period, the record in the entire historical series of the Alerta Rio System (since 1997) at that meteorological station.

The accumulated result was approximately 40% higher than the historical average for January in that region – in just one day it rained 138.4% of the January average.