<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">Families in southern Brazil on Saturday began to bury victims of a cyclone that left at least 42 dead and affected some 150,000 people, many of whom lost their homes or faced isolation from landslides that washed away roads and bridges.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the cemetery of Mucum, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, mourners wept and hugged one another as loved ones were buried.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pallbearers carried caskets through mud and puddles left by the storm.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The heavy rains and strong winds that hit the area last week tore away stone slabs weighing several tons and opened up tombs, some of which were flooded with mud. A jawbone lay uncovered on the ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Fabiano Bolnr, a 48-year-old policeman, lost his aunt, uncle and cousin. He said his cousin escaped flooding but returned to try to save his parents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">All three were buried Saturday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"They had already been through several floods, they had even moved to a house on higher ground. But unfortunately the waters came back and this time they took them away," he told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mucum was hit harder by floods and landslides than any other municipality in Rio Grande do Sul. Authorities Saturday night lifted the death toll from the cyclone to 42 people and said 46 remain missing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Relatives of nine victims had to go to the neighboring town of Vespasiano Correa to say their last goodbyes in an emotional ceremony in the municipal gymnasium.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I thought the worst was over, but I think this is really the worst moment, the moment of farewell and collective farewell," the mayor of Mucum, Mateus Trojan, told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- Pontiff offers prayers -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In the Fatima neighborhood of Mucum, piles of red brick and wood were all that was left of houses that once stood. Mounds of corrugated metal roofing, splintered lumber, broken furniture, sodden clothing and wet mattresses were strewn along muddy roads.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Amid a search for the missing, access to the city was restricted. Of the 46 people still missing, 30 were from Mucum.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Elsewhere in the city, men on tractors or aboard heavy machinery moved debris. Groups of women carried food to volunteers and rescue workers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At the cemetery, floral bouquets brightened the grim scene, sitting on muddy sidewalks as bereaved families gathered to place caskets of loved ones in burial niches.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Pope Francis on Saturday expressed his solidarity with the affected communities, according to a telegram in Portuguese from the Vatican secretary of state's office.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The pontiff "offers prayers for the eternal rest of the fatal victims as well as prayers for the homeless families, wishing that the reconstruction of the affected localities may take place quickly and efficiently."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in India for the G20 summit, linked the tragedy in Rio Grande do Sul to the "unprecedented climate emergency" the planet is experiencing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The cyclone, which affected 88 localities in Rio Grande do Sul, caused economic losses of more than 1.3 billion reais (US$270 million), according to the National Confederation of Municipalities. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>