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Article: Brazilians fleeing floods avoid deadly reptiles
- Article from:
- AP Online
- Article date:
- May 8, 2009
- Author:
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Northern Brazil's worst floods in decades have driven 268,000 people from their homes to seek refuge wherever they can, packing onto flatbed trucks and braving rivers teeming with deadly reptiles in a scramble for higher ground.
As of Friday, 39 people were killed in the flooding, sparked by unusually heavy rains that have been falling for two months on 10 of Brazil's 26 states. Three times the size of Alaska, the affected area stretches from the normally wet rainforest to coastal states known for lengthy droughts.
Meteorologists blame an Atlantic Ocean weather system that typically moves on by April _ and they forecast weeks more of the same.
Maria do Remedio Santos, ...