Brazil deluge kills 36; search continues for dozens missing Michigan State set to resume classes

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI The Associated Press

Michigan State University professor Marco Díaz-Muñoz is still haunted by what he witnessed last Monday night, when a gunman entered his classroom in Berkey Hall, killing two of his students in what he describes as “12 minutes of terror.” but there has to be something good out of it.”

“Those images haunt me. The images of those two girls,” Díaz-Muñoz told The Associated Press.

Arielle Anderson and Alexandria Verner, both juniors, would die that night, Feb. 13. The gunman would shoot six more students during the rampage in two campus buildings. Brian Fraser also would die. Five others would suffer critical gunshot wounds.

By TATIANA POLLASTRI and ELEONORE HUGHES

The Associated Press

Hundreds of rescuers searched Monday for survivors of landslides and flooding that killed at least 36 people along the coast of Brazil’s southern state of Sao Paulo following a huge weekend downpour.

Worst hit was the city of Sao Sebastiao, where at least 35 were dead. In neighboring Ubatuba a 7-year-old girl was killed. The disaster, in an area famous for beaches flanked by mountains, prompted cancellations in many cities of the Carnival festivities now in full swing elsewhere in the country.

Gov. Tarcisio de Freitas told television network Globo that another 40 people were missing. Nearly 800 people were homeless and 1,730 people have been displaced, his state government said in a statement.

Television footage showed flooded homes with only their roofs visible. Residents used small boats to carry items and people to elevated positions.

A woman who gave only her first name, Mailsa, said she and her husband, daughter and grandson only barely escaped when a landslide destroyed her house in the Juquehy municipality of Sao Sebastiao. The house was partially submerged, parts of it fell away and the rest was left precariously perched on the edge of a hill.

“It was very quick. Either you run or you die,” she said. “It’s not possible to take anything, only your life, which is the most important thing.”

Members of the armed forces joined the search and rescue efforts, aggravated by poor access to many areas after landslides blocked the snaking roads in the region’s highlands and floods washed away chunks of pavement in low-lying and oceanfront areas.

“Our rescue teams are not managing to get to several locations. It is a chaotic situ- ation,” Sao Sebastiao Mayor Felipe Augusto said on social media late Sunday night.

Augusto said about 50 houses collapsed in the city due to the landslides, and he posted several videos of destruction and search efforts, including one of a baby being rescued by locals lined up on a flooded street.

The highway connecting Rio de Janeiro state with Sao Paulo’s port city of Santos was blocked by landslides and floodwaters. Gov. de Freitas said the damage was so extensive, the highway may no longer exist.

Precipitation in Sao Sebastiao had surpassed 600 millimeters (23.6 inches) during a 24-hour period over the weekend, among the largest such downpours ever in such a short period in Brazil.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited the region on Monday. He observed the damage in Sao Sebastiao from a helicopter and met with Gov. de Freitas at Sao Sebastiao’s theatre, where search operations were being coordinated.

Lula called for people living in the hillside areas to be relocated to safer regions. “Every now and then nature plays a surprise on us, but also many times we defy nature,” Lula said in remarks to reporters in Sao Sebastiao.

De Freitas declared a state of emergency for the hardest-hit cities, including Sao Sebastiao, Ubatuba, Ilhabela and Bertioga, which enables expedited allocation of funds for relief. He said 7 million reais ($1.35 million) already had been released. On Monday, the governor also declared three days of official mourning throughout the state of Sao Paulo.

The heavy rain affected water, electricity and phone services, according to a statement from the state government, which posted on Twitter a video showing 30,000 liters of water being transported to Sao Sebastiao.

Classes are resuming Monday at the 50,000-student university, though Berkey Hall, an academic building, will not reopen. Officials said Sunday that swiftly resuming classes makes sense for the 2 1/2-month balance of the spring term.

“Coming back together is something that will help us,” said Thomas Jeitschko, executive vice president for academic affairs, adding that faculty will have extensive flexibility in how they run their courses.

“We know that everybody heals at their own pace and in their own manner. Getting it exactly right will not be possible,” Jeitschko said at a news conference Sunday. “Coming back into spaces that are familiar, interacting with people who are familiar, is helpful in the process of healing and grieving.”

Díaz-Muñoz said the university had offered to have another professor teach through the end of the semester.

“On one hand, I want to forget it all. But then on the other hand, I think I need to help my students pick up the pieces,” Díaz-Muñoz said. “I think I need to help my students build a sense of meaning. It’s not going to be the same as before,

Some in the community, however, aren’t ready. The editorial board of The State News, the student newspaper, wrote Thursday that they wouldn’t immediately attend classes, saying more time was needed to heal.

Jo Kovach, president of student government, said “students are scared” and will need “flexibility, empathy and options” from their professors.

Following the shooting, parents arrived from all over the state to bring students home, at least for the rest of last week. A petition demanding hybrid or online options for students received more than 20,000 signatures by Saturday.

Jeitschko said students will have weeks to decide whether to take a regular grade or a credit/no credit option, which would not affect their overall grade-point average.

“Let the semester play out. Come back. Try to heal,” he said.

Díaz-Muñoz understands that some students won’t be ready to return, saying that some will still have “the fear of looking over their shoulder and looking out the window, at the doors.”

“There are some kids in my class that are graduating this semester. And they need this horrific nightmare to have a better ending than the way it ended on Monday,” Díaz-Muñoz said.

Sparrow Hospital said three wounded students remained in critical condition Sunday while one was upgraded to fair and another was listed in serious but stable condition. Interim university President Teresa Woodruff said Michigan State would cover funeral costs and hospital expenses.

Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023. In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The shots broke out at Michigan State on Monday during evening classes at Berkey Hall and nearby at the MSU Union, a social hub where students can study, eat and relax. Students across the vast campus were ordered to shelter in place for four hours — “run, hide, fight” if necessary — while police hunted for Anthony McRae, 43, who eventually killed himself when confronted by police not far from his home in Lansing.

Police said McRae’s mental health could have been a factor, based on a note found on him.