Rovena Rosa / Agência BrasilHouses destroyed in landslides after storms in São Sebastião, on the north coast of São Paulo State, in February 2023Rovena Rosa / Agência Brasil
The landslides and floods that make the news every summer in Brazil are not only dramatic because the rainfall is so heavy, but also because most municipalities do not have the money, manpower, or material resources to protect the public. Between February and May 2021, researchers from the Brazilian Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring (CEMADEN), São Paulo State University (UNESP), and the National Network of Resilient Communities (RENACOR) sent online questionnaires to civil defense representatives from the country’s 5,570 municipalities. They received responses from 1,993 of them, of which 72% did not have the budget to implement natural disaster prevention policies and 67% did not have vehicles for operating in the field. In 59% of cases, response teams were made up of just one or two people, while 56% did not have personal protective equipment, 53% did not have a cell phone with internet access, and 30% did not have a computer. Representatives from one in five municipalities that responded to the questionnaires (22%) said they did not know about the Civil Defense Payment Card (CPDC), one of the requirements for receiving federal funding for relief actions (International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, March).
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