Rio De Janeiro: Driving rains sent tons of rusty red earth sliding into mountain towns, killing at least 257 people and leaving dozens more missing - lives rescuers hope to save when they resume searches on Thursday.
In the hardest-hit town of Teresopolis, where the local civil defense agency said at least 130 people died, hundreds of family members crowded around the town's morgue Wednesday night waiting to identify bodies.
Before rescue attempts were called off because of darkness, searchers used heavy machinery, shovels and bare hands trying to find survivors. How many were saved was not known. In one town, firefighters rescued a 25-year-old man who held his 6-month-old son for 15 hours until they were both pulled out alive. The man's wife and mother-in-law were feared dead.
Cars sit in debris in a flooded street in Teresopolis, Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, Wednesday Jan. 12, 2011.
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