In Brazil, floods displace 150,000

More than 150,000 people have been rendered homeless in northern Brazil in the wake of three days of heavy rains that brought the country face to face with crisis.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday that in order to address the emergency in the country, he will cancel a trip to Canada for the G20 summit, the Agencia Brasil government news agency reported, according to CNN.
Finance Minister Guido Mantega will instead head the Brazilian team at the summit.

According to the news agency, states of Alagoas and Pernambuco suffered most of the casualties which stood at 46 in total.

The number of missing people, on the other hand, has dropped to less than 140.

The national civil defense office set the number of homeless in Alagoas at around 75,000, while it said the number stood at more than 80,000 for Pernambuco.

The federal government said on Thursday that it has allocated 500 million reais (USD 277 million) to help thevictims.

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the United States have also pledged to send aid.

In April, flooding and landslides triggered by torrential rain took the lives of at least 229 people in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro region.