Rio flood toll reaches 100 as downpours ease

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Flooding and mudslides from the heaviest deluge ever recorded in Rio killed at least 100 people and left many more homeless, officials said today as the rains finally began to ease.

A minimum 2,000 people were forced from their homes by punishing rain that filled streets with raging torrents and ground Brazils' second-biggest city to a halt the previous day. All told, about 11 inches (28 centimeters) fell in the space of 36 hours.

"When the man upstairs sends us this much rain, there isn't a thing that anyone can do," Pedro Souza said as he tried to unclog a sewer drain with a broom outside an apartment building in Copacabana.

The death toll was expected to rise as rescue workers picked through tons of mud that barreled through precarious, hillside slums, where most of the deaths were registered.