• Mudslide kills more than a dozen people in Jamapara, Brazil

    Photos by Victor R. Caivano / AP

    A firefighter takes a dog downhill at the site of a mudslide to search for missing people in Jamapara, Brazil on Jan. 10, 2012.

    Rescue personnel recover the body of a mudslide victim in Jamapara on Tuesday.

    The Associated Press reports a mudslide caused by two days of rain has killed at least 13 people in a small town in southeastern Brazil, and another 11 are listed as missing, the head of the Rio de Janeiro state civil defense department said Tuesday.

    Sergio Simoes told CBN radio that five bodies were pulled from beneath tons of mud and debris on Tuesday, bringing the death toll in the Jamapara district of Sapucaia city to 13. Eight bodies were found on Monday.

    Antonio Marcos Silva dos Reis said he lost several friends in the mudslide. He said it "sounded like a huge explosion when it happened."

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  • Poor hillside residents in Colombia fear mudslides as heavy rains to last through early 2012

    Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

    A man stands on the ruins of his house, destroyed by a recent landslide on the oustskirts of Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 18. People living in the impoverished neighborhoods in the hills surrounding the Colombian capital live in constant fear of devastating mudslides which threaten not only their houses but their lives as well. At least 98 people have died since September as a result of Colombia's second annual rainy season, according to the Red Cross. State weather monitors have warned that the heavy rains, which began in September, will last through the first months of 2012 due to the cyclical La Nina weather phenomenon.

    Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

    A woman stands outside her house in an impoverished neighborhood on the oustskirts of Bogota, Colombia, on Nov. 18.

    Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

    A nearby hill is framed by a hole on the wall of a house in ruins after a recent landslide on the oustskirts of Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 18.

    Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

    Local residents walk down an "alley" in an impoverished neighborhood on the oustskirts of Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 18.

    Eitan Abramovich / AFP - Getty Images

    Picture of a neighborhood on the oustskirts of Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 18.

     See a PhotoBlog post of one of the devastating mudslides that occured in Colombia on Nov. 5.

  • Mudslide kills four and leaves 28 missing in Colombia

    All photos by J. J. Bonilla / AFP - Getty Images

    Local residents, police officers and rescue workers evacuate a victim after a landslide in Manizales, Colombia on Nov. 5, 2011.

    Colombia continues to struggle under one of the worst rainy seasons on record. The latest mudslide killed four and left 28 people missing in Manizales. Heavy rains and mudslides have caused the evacuation of almost 250,000 people throughout the country.

    Rescue workers search for victims in Manizales on Saturday. The Red Cross says at least 28 people were missing after a landslide was caused by heavy rains.

  • Firefighter attempts perilous rescue after mudslide in China

    AFP - Getty Images

    A firefighter uses a rope to rescue a group of 36 villagers stranded on a section of road which was destroyed by a mudslide in Yinxiu county, in southwest China's Sichuan province, on July 4. Summer downpours pummelled large swaths of south and central China in June. Chinese authorities said that 279 people died in natural disasters in June and another 93 had gone missing, as the country was hit by floods, mudslides and earthquakes.

    Emergency workers in Sichuan province used a makeshift zip line to rescue villagers from rising floodwaters. TODAY.com's Dara Brown reports.

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  • President: Colombia hit by 'worst national disaster'

    Luis Eduardo Noriega / EPA

    A boy plays in the middle of a landslide in Sabaneta, a town in the north west of Colombia, on April 25. Close to three million people have been affected and 418 people have been killed by the rains in the country during the last year, according to the Red Cross National Relief director, Cesar Urueña.

    Months of heavy rains, flooding and mudslides have caused "the worst natural disaster that we can remember," Colombia's president said Monday night.

    President Juan Manuel Santos said three million Colombians have been badly affected by heavy rains since the middle of last year. "It is as if our entire territory has been affected by a hurricane that came in halfway through last year and hasn't wanted to leave," he said. Continue reading.

  • Devastating rain and mudslides strike Brazil

    The AP Reports: Torrential summer rains tore through Rio de Janeiro state's mountains, killing at least 140 people in 24 hours, Brazilian officials said Wednesday. Rescuers using heavy machinery, shovels and bare hands struggled to dig through tons of mud and debris in a search for survivors. 

    Read the full story here.

    Vanderlei Almeida / AFP - Getty Images

    Rescue workers search for victims after heavy rains caused mudslides in a low-income neighborhood in Teresopolis, some 100 km from downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on Jan. 12. Authorities have stated that more than a thousand people have been left without homes and 71 lost their lives in Teresopolis alone.

    Bruno Domingos / Reuters

    An aerial view shows damage caused to a street after heavy rains in Nova Frigurgo City on Jan. 12. Floods and landslides devastated towns in a mountainous area near Rio de Janeiro, killing dozens of people and bringing the death toll on Wednesday from days of heavy rain in southern Brazil to at least 127.

  • 'It never rains in Southern California', FAIL!

    Paul Buck / EPA

    Katharine Story sweeps mud and water from her clothing store in Laguna Beach, Calif., Dec. 22, 2010. Cleanup efforts are underway after heavy rains flooded downtown with 3-4 feet of mud.

    By Robert Hood

    I’ve been looking at the pictures of the storm in California all morning, and now I can’t get that song out of my head.

    Albert Hammond performs "It never rains in Southern California".

  • Massive storm hits California, causing flooding and mudslides

    Alex Gallardo / AP

    Residents secure a van caught in a mudslide by tying the van to a tree in Silverado Canyon, Calif., Dec. 22, 2010.

    NBC, msnbc.com and news services report:

    LOS ANGELES — Areas just south of Los Angeles — including a tony beach town that saw "rivers coming through" and its main beach washed away — were hardest hit Wednesday by the fiercest of several storms that battered Southern California since Friday.

    A state of emergency is declared in the Golden State amid fears that the heavy rains will trigger dangerous flooding and even mudslides. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.