Violent Tempest Devastates Ribeirão Preto Region, Kills One

Overview

• The storm that struck on Friday, July 24, produced very strong gusts reported up to about 120–122 km/h and caused the collapse of buildings and a confirmed fatality when a galpão hit a home.
• The tempest lasted roughly 30 minutes in some areas and left widespread damage to homes, businesses and public facilities, including hospitals that transferred patients after forro failures.
• Power and essential services were heavily disrupted with regional energy companies reporting tens of thousands of customers without electricity and dozens of transmission towers and hundreds of poles down.
• Municipal, state and federal officials declared states of emergency, opened shelters, organized donations and registered affected families while the national government sent Defesa Civil teams to assist on the ground.
• Meteorological agencies issued yellow danger‑potential alerts across the Southeast and South forecasting heavy hourly rainfall, possible hail and renewed temporals into the weekend that could cause flash floods and more infrastructure failures.