Brazil again hit by floods

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33512, 18 April 1974, Page 11

Brazil again hit by floods

V Z P.. 4 Reuter—Copyright

RIO DE JANEIRO. April 17. Fresh floods in north-eastern Brazil have left 70.000 people homeless and caused 12 deaths.

Less than two weeks after i ♦he worst floods in Brazilian history, resulting in 300.000 m refugees and a death toll estimated at several thousand,, rivers in the north-east have! once more broken their 1 , banks.

The State Public Calamities Office says that res-1 cue and flood-supply operations have been intensified

after being reduced because of a drop in water levels. The worst affected area isi the cotton-growing state of Ceara, in which the towns; of Paranaiba, Floriano. and Picos are reported to be under water.

The Ceara State Governor (Mr Cesar Cals) has told the [ Ministry of the Interior that thousands of flood victims j who had returned to their [ homes after the waters! receded are once more

homeless. In the northern state of Rio Grande do Norte. Governor Cortez Pereira has decreed a state of emergency, seven municipalities having been flooded. There is considerable damage to cotton mills in Ceara, and in the state of Piaui, along the River Guaribas.

com, beans, cotton, and 1 mandioca crops are reported to be under water. Brazilian aircraft are transporting emergency rations to the flooded towns, and the Ministry of Health, aided by volunteers, has in-

tensified its vaccination campaign against typhoid, • malaria, and yellow fever in nine north-eastern states.

Hoffmann sought A Bench warrant has been issued for Abbie Hoffman, the radical American figure of the 19605. for the failure

to appear in court on a • charge of selling cocaine. The New York Assistant District Attorney (Mr David ■Cunningham) says that Hoff,man was not at the funeral of his father on March 27,

and that he was last seen n public on February 5. when he visited New York to rape a television show. Hoffman faces a 15-years-to-life sentence if convicted on a charge of selling 31b of cocaine for 5U536.000 to an undercover agent on August 29 of last year. — New York, April 17. .