Brazil dam break kills 5, leaves 4 missing

Heavy rains have pummeled northeastern part of country

This photo released by Piaui's government, shows a view of a flooding area after a ruptured dam swamped a rural town in Piaui, Brazil, Thursday, May 28, 2009. Raging torrents, from a ruptured dam, swamped a rural town in Brazil, killing a young girl and destroying at least 500 homes in a region already devastated by weeks of floods, authorities said Thursday. (AP Photo/Andre Leao, Piaui's Government)

Andre Leao / AP

Video: Weather

Winter weather to stall in Midwest?
Dec. 23: NBC’s Brian Williams speaks with Mike Seidel of the Weather Channel.

Winter storm disrupts Midwest travel

Airlines, retailers play catch-up

Winter weather wreaks havoc in Europe

Hawaiian water spout

Most popular

By ALAN CLENDENNING

Associated Press Writer

updated 1:10 p.m. ET May 29, 2009

SAO PAULO - Rescue workers on Friday found the body of another Brazilian killed after a dam ruptured, raising the death count to at least five with four people still missing.

Authorities in the northeastern state of Piaui reduced the count of missing from a previous estimate of 11 after seven people were located.

Civil defense officials also said Friday that water from the dam destroyed part of a highway 53 miles down river from the small farming city of Cocal where the dam is located.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

Raging torrents cascaded into Cocal, population about 25,000, Wednesday night. Eighty people suffered minor injuries, nearly 3,000 were left homeless and the waters carried away cattle and inundated crops.

Floods in Brazil have caused chaos since April from the Amazon to the Atlantic Ocean — killing at least 59 people and displacing more than 423,000.

The heavy rains are blamed on an Atlantic Ocean weather system that normally moves away in April but hasn't budged this year. Meanwhile, southern Brazil has been hit by a drought that has severely affected agriculture.