The Vale do Ribeira Emergency Is a Paraná Story. The Deaths Are in Greater São Paulo.

BRAZIL · WEATHER

The valley straddles a state line, and Monday’s coverage merged two emergencies into one.

Army engineers are clearing a federal highway in Paraná alongside the roads agency. (Photo: “Brazilian Army Chivunk” by Lula Oficial, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.)

The Vale do Ribeira is one of the least developed regions of southern Brazil, and it lies across a state border. That fact is doing a lot of damage to Monday’s reporting.

Almost every new development belongs to the Paraná side. The eight confirmed deaths belong to Greater São Paulo, more than two hundred kilometres away.

What Is New on Monday

Paraná’s civil defence issued a bulletin at 5.30 a.m. Brasília time. It records 2,073 people out of their homes and 395 in public shelters.

Sixty municipalities are affected and 14,675 people counted as touched by the event. Sixty-seven separate incidents are logged.

The state utility Copel reports 11,795 customers without electricity on the Paraná side. Cerro Azul accounts for 7,432 of them.

Adrianopolis has 3,167, Doutor Ulysses 881 and Tunas do Paraná 315. Supply had been restored to 1,186 properties since Sunday morning.

Governor Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior inspected affected municipalities on Monday. He had requested army support on Sunday.

The Army Was Called by Paraná

A widely repeated line says the state government called in the army. The state in question is Paraná, not São Paulo.

Ratinho Junior said on Sunday that the army had been activated to help open access in some regions. Army engineers are working on the BR-476 federal highway alongside the national roads agency.

No source shows the São Paulo government requesting federal troops. Anyone reading this as a São Paulo deployment has the wrong state.

The BR-476 is fully blocked at three points. A detour runs via the BR-116, and the PR-092 has at least forty blockage points.

Greater São Paulo, where all eight confirmed deaths occurred. (Photo: “Crowded shopping street in central Sao Paulo” by Wilfredor, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.)

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The Power Figure Belongs to Paraná Too

A figure of roughly 12,000 properties without electricity has circulated as a São Paulo number. No such figure from any São Paulo distributor appears in the record.

The closest real numbers are both from Paraná. Copel’s 11,795 customers, and a separate count of more than 12,000 people affected.

Customers and people are different units and the two have been blended. Either way, the state is Paraná.

Where the Deaths Are

Eight people died and one is missing, on figures from civil defence and municipal authorities as of 13 September. All of them are in Greater São Paulo.

Six died in the collapse of a building under construction in Penha, in the east of the city. The dead include three women, one of them pregnant, two men and a child.

That is a structural collapse at a building site, not a drowning or a landslide. A company representative was arrested on Sunday morning.

Two more died in Jandira in flash flooding, a woman found on Friday and a man on Sunday. One person is still missing there.

No deaths have been reported in Paraná. None of the eight occurred in the valley on either side of the line.

The toll rose during Sunday, from two at the Penha site in the morning to six by evening. No update has been issued for Monday.

The São Paulo Side

The Ribeira de Iguape river rose roughly nine metres. In Eldorado, 54 families and 173 people were evacuated, and about 50 homes were affected in Sete Barras.

Six of 29 state water monitoring stations were overflowing, with one at emergency level at Registro. The SP-165 highway was affected at Eldorado by a barrier collapse.

Several São Paulo roads were progressively reopened during Sunday. Describing them as closed today requires naming which ones.

On the Paraná side, 274 families were evacuated in Uniao da Vitória. That municipality is outside the Vale do Ribeira.

No New Alert Was Issued

Reports of a fresh storm alert for São Paulo on Monday could not be confirmed. What exists is an earlier forecast that covers today.

São Paulo civil defence forecast heavy coastal rain for Sunday and Monday, up to 150 millimetres over the two days. It was issued around 13 September.

Between midnight on Saturday and 7.30 a.m. on Sunday, civil defence sent 21 text alerts and four broadcast alerts. The cause is described as a coastal cold front with instability from an extratropical cyclone.

An existing forecast covering today is not the same as a new warning issued today. The distinction is worth keeping.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is the valley?

The Vale do Ribeira straddles the border between São Paulo and Paraná states in southern Brazil. That is why the two emergencies are being reported as one.

Who called in the army?

Paraná’s governor, Carlos Massa Ratinho Junior, on Sunday 13 September. Army engineers are clearing the BR-476 federal highway. No source shows São Paulo requesting troops.

How many people are without power?

11,795 customers on the Paraná side, on the state utility’s own count, with Cerro Azul accounting for 7,432. No equivalent São Paulo figure has been published.

How many people have died?

Eight confirmed and one missing, all in Greater São Paulo. Six died when a building under construction collapsed in Penha and two in flash flooding in Jandira.

Was a new storm alert issued on Monday?

No new alert could be confirmed. São Paulo civil defence issued a coastal heavy-rain forecast around 13 September that covers Sunday and Monday.

Sources: Paraná civil defence bulletin of 14 September, Copel, Agencia Brasil, Poder360, Brasil de Fato, Diario do Grande ABC and Tribuna do Vale.