Fierce winds up to 111 km/h kill five in Rio and Sao Paulo, toppling trees and halting subway.
RIO DE JANEIRO: Five people have died after powerful gusts of wind in Brazil brought chaos to Rio de Janeiro and parts of Sao Paulo state, cutting power and bringing public transport to a standstill.
Residents of Rio de Janeiro were taken by surprise when winds of up to 100 kilometres an hour hit just before rush hour, felling dozens of trees and leaving thousands stranded as the city’s three subway lines ground to a halt.
The fire department said in a statement that two people had died when a wall collapsed in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and a fisherman was missing in the coastal town of Tarituba.
In Santos, in the state of Sao Paulo, wind gusts of up to 111 km/h caused widespread damage, and a homeless person was killed by a fallen tree, local authorities said in a statement.
Operations were affected at several major airports in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
Santos Dumont Airport, Rio’s downtown airport serving mostly domestic flights, told AFP in a statement that it had suspended operations for about two hours.
According to Rio firefighters, more than 90 trees had fallen due to the gusts. Many areas of the city suffered blackouts before power was restored.
In the middle-class neighbourhood of Botafogo, two large trees fell on either side of the newsstand where Patrick Diego, 39, has worked for over 20 years.
“Fortunately, they came down slowly and didn’t hurt anyone. The only damage was that the newsstand was shifted out of place,” he said.
“Chaos has taken over,” building manager Paula Rubim, 53, told AFP, as the whole street was blocked to traffic, complaining that the “subway was at a standstill.”
The city hall’s operations centre said the winds were the result of “the approach of an oceanic cold front.”
The gusts came on a hot, sunny day, and videos showed people leaving Ipanema and Copacabana beaches en masse as gusts whipped up sand and swept away umbrellas and beach chairs.
