At least five people died and about 430 were injured, nine of them seriously, after a tornado with winds of up to 250 kilometers per hour caused enormous destruction in its path in cities of Paraná, a state in southern Brazil bordering Paraguay, the Civil Defense reported this Saturday (11/08/2025).
The most affected cities were Río Bonito do Iguaçu, where four fatalities were reported, and Guarapuava, with one death, but at least 14 municipalities declared a state of emergency after the tornado passed through.
According to the Civil Defense, the phenomenon, with strong winds, storms and hail, destroyed about 80% of the buildings in Río Bonito do Iguaçu, a city of about 13,500 inhabitants and where the strong winds dislodged dozens of homes and knocked down numerous trees and power lines.
Collapsed cities
“Between 80 and 90% of the city was collapsed,” said the Secretary of Public Security of Paraná, Colonel Hudson Leoncio Teixeira. At least 3,000 homes in this city continued without electricity and water services in the early hours of this Saturday.
According to meteorological services, the destruction was caused by a tornado that formed within a supercell, as extreme storms characterized by their long duration and the presence of a main rotating updraft are known.
The other two states in southern Brazil, Río Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, declared a state of emergency due to the record of an extratropical cyclone moving north. While the governorate of Sao Paulo, the most populated state in Brazil, sent alert messages to the inhabitants of several municipalities regarding the possibility of this cyclone reaching their territory this Saturday.
(mn/efe, afp)
