THIS is the terrifying moment dozens of coffins were washed away during a flash flood in Brazil.
Footage shows caskets drifting through waterlogged streets after a funeral home was breached by the raging waters.
Coffins could be seen being carried away on fast-moving floodwaterCredit: JamPress
The funeral home housing the caskets were breached by floodwaterCredit: JamPress
The cameraperson can be heard shouting “My god!” as the coffins rush past, swept along by the fast-moving, muddy floodwaters.
The caskets narrowly avoid telegraph poles and traffic lights as driving rain continues to batter the region.
Seven lives have been lost in the extreme weather in Ubá, Minas Gerais, where the funeral home was located.
Since Monday, the region has been pummelled by relentless storms, triggering flash floods that have destroyed homes and businesses alike.
In their wake, the floods have left a trail of devastation that has forced authorities to declare a state of emergency.
Schools and day centres have been closed, as rescue teams scramble to provide urgent assistance.
A spokesperson from Ubá City Hall shared the heartbreak felt by the community: “Families have lost everything. Homes, stories, memories: lives were shaken in just a few hours.”
“Now, more than ever, our city needs the strength of its people.”
“Teams from the Fire Department, Municipal Guard, and the Municipal Civil Defence Coordination have been working since the early hours of the morning, surveying the flooding locations, working on emergency solutions, and monitoring the affected areas.”
The worst-hit city in Minas Gerais has been Juiz de Fora, where the death toll has reached 30.
, fire services have cautioned that it is unlikely any more survivors will be found.
“Our family is desperate,” said Josiane Aparecida, a 43-year-old cook in Juiz de Fora.
Her aunt was killed in a landslide, and although her cousin was found alive, they later passed away in hospital.
“Our family is desperate,” she said.
Aparecida is still combing through the rubble in search of her cousin’s two young children, aged six and nine, along with her cousin’s boyfriend.
“We have hope, and yet we don’t, because it’s so difficult (to find them), and we’ve already lost two,” she continued.
Nearby, rescuers discovered the body of a man who, before his death, managed to pull his wife out of their home just moments before it was consumed by a landslide.
These tragic instances are just the latest in a series of deadly extreme weather events to strike Brazil – events that experts increasingly attribute to the ongoing effects of global warming.
In 2024, catastrophic flooding in southern Brazil claimed over 200 lives and displaced more than two million people.
Just two years earlier, the city of Petropolis was devastated by a deluge that left 241 dead.
Heavy rainfall continues to batter the regionCredit: JamPress
Families have been left searching through mounds of rubble for loved onesCredit: JamPress
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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