TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (Reuters) – Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities’ response to one of Brazil’s worst natural disasters which has killed nearly 600 people.

Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic mountain town are still struggling to cope with the scale of the catastrophe. The steadily rising death toll in the region north of Rio de Janeiro hit 591 on Saturday, Brazil’s Civil Defense agency said, and President Dilma Rousseff declared three days of national mourning.

Cemeteries in Teresopolis have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies and Brazilian media reported that residents in isolated areas have been forced to bury victims themselves.

Mortuary officials in Teresopolis, where the official death toll is 257, are using two refrigerated fish trucks to hold dozens of bodies that have still not been identified.

Many residents fear their relatives are still buried under the surge of water, mud and rocks that tore a path of destruction through some villages on the outskirts of the town, suggesting the death toll could rise sharply. Authorities have not given estimates on the number of missing people.

Wemerly Moraes was waiting with his wife outside the morgue on Saturday morning to identify a body that could be the missing 2-year-old son of his sister, whose body has already been buried.

“This happened on Wednesday morning. When I went there on Thursday, there was still no one working to find victims,” the 37-year-old builder said. “Maybe then he was still alive.”

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Dozens of flood survivors desperate for news of missing relatives lined up outside a morgue in the Brazilian town of Teresopolis on Saturday as criticism grew of authorities’ response to one of the country’s worst natural disasters.

Nearly four days after rains sparked floods and massive landslides, officials in this scenic mountain town are still struggling to cope with the scale of the catastrophe that has killed at least 564 people in the region north of Rio de Janeiro.

Cemeteries in Teresopolis have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies and Brazilian media reported that residents in isolated areas have been forced to bury victims themselves.

Mortuary officials in Teresopolis, where the official death toll is 238, are using two refrigerated fish trucks to hold dozens of bodies that have still not been identified.

Many residents fear their relatives are still buried under the surge of water, mud and rocks that tore a path of destruction through some villages on the outskirts of the town, suggesting the death toll could rise sharply. Authorities have not given estimates on the number of missing people.

Wemerly Moraes, 37, was waiting with his wife outside the morgue on Saturday morning to identify a body that could be the missing two-year-old son of his sister, whose body has already been buried.

“This happened on Wednesday morning. When I went there on Thursday, there was still no-one working to find victims,” the 37-year-old builder said. “Maybe then he was still alive.”

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil (Reuters) – Rescuers uncovered more corpses buried under mud and wrecked homes in southeastern Brazil on Friday as the death toll from torrential rains and massive floods hit 540 people and looked certain to climb.

Rivers of mud tore through towns this week in the mountainous Serrana region outside Rio de Janeiro, leveling houses, throwing cars atop buildings and leaving more than 13,500 people seeking shelter and aid.

It was Brazil’s deadliest natural disaster since 785 people were killed in floods in 1967, a local newspaper reported.

The extent of the damage exposed major flaws in emergency planning and disaster prevention in a country that aspires to attain developed-nation status in coming years.

It also highlighted the huge challenges that new President Dilma Rousseff faces as she strives to upgrade Brazil’s creaking infrastructure before it hosts soccer’s World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics two years later.

The floods have not affected Brazil’s main export crops — soy, sugar cane, oranges and coffee — but likely caused billions of dollars in damage.

Police were deployed to keep order in the handful of towns — some of them popular tourist destinations — about 60 miles north of Rio after looters raided stores for food and scoured damaged homes for valuables.

CAMPO GRANDE, Brazil (Reuters) – Her eyes red from crying, Lourdes Rocha da Silva shook her head at the surreal jumble of bricks, car-sized rocks and huge clumps of mud that buried dozens of her neighbors.

“This was all houses,” she said, still in shock over the moment early on Wednesday morning when a wall of water and earth laid waste to the community of Campo Grande on the outskirts of Teresopolis town.

“There were so many people screaming for help and dying, but we couldn’t do anything. It was dark.”

The poor community of about 5,000 people is one of the most grisly epicenters of the flooding and landslides that have killed more than 500 people in this mountainous region of Brazil north of Rio de Janeiro.

That toll is likely to rise — and in Campo Grande it is easy to see why. Residents and rescue officials say many people were entombed in their houses as they slept and may not be found for weeks.

While it was impossible to know how many people died in Campo Grande, residents said hundreds of people were missing.

The massive rocks and rivers of mud several meters deep mean rescuers here have virtually given up looking for survivors.

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil, Jan 14 (Reuters) – Rescue workers in Brazil braced for more rain on Friday as they struggled to reach areas cut off by massive floods and landslides that look certain to have killed more than 500 people.

In one of the country’s worst natural disasters, rivers of mud tore through towns in the mountainous Serrana region outside Rio de Janeiro, leveling houses, throwing cars atop buildings and stranding thousands of residents.

“What happened here is absurd. It looks like the war in Vietnam,” said Albertino Lazaro, 54, who took shelter in a gymnasium set up to house displaced families in the town of Teresopolis, where at least 223 people were killed.

“It’s a lot better than being out there in the mud,” he said of the shelter as children played soccer among families sleeping on mattresses.

The death toll was 495 people, according to official tallies late on Thursday, but rescuers had yet to reach some of the worst-hit parts of Teresopolis, including one neighborhood where around 150 houses were believed to have been destroyed.

More than 13,500 people have been left homeless.

The flooding likely caused billions of dollars in damage and has presented President Dilma Rousseff with her first crisis only two weeks after she took office.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Floods and landslides devastated several mountain towns near Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, killing at least 257 people as torrents of water and mud swept through the region, burying many families as they slept.

The heavy rains also killed 13 people in Sao Paulo state on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll in Brazil’s south to at least 270.

Hillsides and river banks in the picturesque Serrana region north of Rio buckled under the equivalent of a month’s rainfall in 24 hours, destroying houses and killing many people early Wednesday, rescue officials said.

Television images showed many houses buried in mud as desperate residents and rescue workers searched for survivors.

“There was no way of telling which house would fall. Rich and poor — everything was destroyed,” domestic worker Fernanda Carvalho was quoted as saying by the Globo network’s website.

At least 130 people were killed in Teresopolis, about 62 miles north of Rio, town officials said. At least 20 people were killed in the city of Petropolis, and 107 in the town of Nova Friburgo, state officials said in an e-mailed statement.

The number of victims was expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies and reach more remote areas.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 12 (Reuters) – Floods and landslides devastated several mountain towns near Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday, killing at least 257 people as torrents of water and mud swept through the region, burying many families as they slept.

The heavy rains also killed 13 people in Sao Paulo state on Tuesday, bringing the total death toll in Brazil’s south to at least 270.

Hillsides and river banks in the picturesque Serrana region north of Rio buckled under the equivalent of a month’s rainfall in 24 hours, destroying houses and killing many people early Wednesday, rescue officials said.

Television images showed many houses buried in mud as desperate residents and rescue workers searched for survivors.

“There was no way of telling which house would fall. Rich and poor — everything was destroyed,” domestic worker Fernanda Carvalho was quoted as saying by the Globo network’s website.

At least 130 people were killed in Teresopolis, about 62 miles (100 km) north of Rio, town officials said. At least 20 people were killed in the city of Petropolis, and 107 in the town of Nova Friburgo, state officials said in an e-mailed statement.

The number of victims was expected to rise as rescuers find more bodies and reach more remote areas.