Brazil floods leave cutoff survivors scrambling for supplies

By TATIANA POLLASTRI and ELÉONORE HUGHES
Associated Press

SAO SEBASTIAO, Brazil (AP) — Hundreds of residents of a rain-battered region in Brazil’s Sao Paulo state are scrambling to find water and daily supplies after floods and mudslides cut off their communities and left at least 48 people dead. Government and private aid groups were trying to provide necessities, but the logistics of reaching the isolated towns was creating difficulties. Authorities said they have reopened some damaged roadways into the region, but that recovery will take time. Rescue operations continue and searchers still hope to find people alive in the rubble of houses slammed by the landslides. Some 1,730 people have been displaced and 1,810 left homeless.