Thousands of flood victims begin returning home in southern Brazil
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Residents ride a boat along a flooded street in Blumenau, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. Nearly 20,000 people have been forced from their homes, and access was cut off to four towns where residents have no electricity due to heavy rains. The death toll from flooding and landslides in southern Brazil has increased to 33, state media said Monday. (AP Photo/Gilmar de Souza/Agencia RBS)
SAO PAULO, Brazil
Brazilian authorities say tens of thousands of flood victims have begun returning home in southern Brazil.
Civil defense officials in the hard-hit southern state of Santa Catarina say more than half of 80,000 people have returned home after being displaced by floods.
But further north in Rio de Janeiro state, the number of people driven from home by recent storms has increased to nearly 20,000.
Santa Catarina state's civil defense department said Wednesday in a statement that another rain-related death was confirmed, increasing the death toll to 117. Most were killed by mudslides provoked by heavy rains.
