Cyclone leaves 13 dead in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO: A cyclone tore through southern Brazil killing at least 13 people and forcing thousands from their homes, authorities said on Sunday.

Authorities lowered the number of people declared missing amid the violent weather in Rio Grande do Sul state Thursday and Friday from 10 to four.

Torrential rain and strong wind caused damage in dozens of towns in that state, including its capital Porto Alegre, in the latest in a string of climate disasters in the South American country.

The death toll rose to 13 with the discovery of two more bodies in the town of Caraa, one of the hardest hit, the state civil defense agency said.

A four month old baby is among the fatalities, local media said. They broadcast footage of a car being swept into a cemetery by powerful winds. “The water came up to our waist inside the house. Thank God, the firemen arrived quickly and got us out on boats. It seemed like a nightmare,” a woman in the town of Sao Leopoldo told the newspaper Estadao, which did not give her name.