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Brazil flood toll climbs amid search for hundreds of missing
Rescue teams pressed a grim search Wednesday for hundreds of people missing in raging floods that swept through towns in northeastern Brazil, killing at least 45 people.
As three days of heavy rains eased, authorities feared a sharp rise in the death toll as rescuers reach communities cut off by the devastating torrents of mud, water and debris in the states of Alagoas and Pernambuco.
Churches, schools and hospitals were underwater, or had simply disappeared in the floods that turned streets into angry rivers in a region already wracked by extreme poverty.
Tons of mud covered what were once the streets of Branquinha and Rio Largo on the banks of the Mundau River in hard-hit Alagoas, burying houses, businesses and houses of worship.
In many towns the destruction was total, with only pieces of furniture, pots and pans, clothing and other personal articles remaining after the buildings were flattened by the floods.