Occurrence of Multi-Disasters in the Mampituba River Basin, Southern Brazil, During the COVID-19 Pandemic

As a result of the passing of two cyclones in July 2020, multi-disasters were registered in the Mampituba River basin, southern Brazil. The first event was a bomb cyclone that took place on July 1 and caused a storm wind that damaged rooftops and felled countless trees. One week later, an extratropical cyclone took place on July 7 and 8, and caused extreme rainfall. Because of the extreme rainfall, debris flow, debris flood, woody debris flow, and floods were registered in the basin. Two municipalities (Praia Grande and Mampituba) were directly affected by the storm winds due to the passing of the bomb cyclone at the first week. Then, the municipalities were also affected by the floods due to the passing of the extratropical cyclone in the following week. Furthermore, the multi-disasters struck the early warning system of the Aparados da Serra National Park and destroyed partially a marked trail used for ecotourism. Such multi-disasters took place during the COVID19 pandemic in Brazil [Simões e Silva et al., 2020], which might intensify the disasters effects, and created a more complex management of disasters in this region. At the federal level, the Brazilian National Early Warning and Monitoring Center of Natural Disasters (CEMADEN) did not warn about such extreme events because they do not cover these municipalities in the basin. At the state level, the Protection and Civil Defense warned insufficiently a vast area about the occurrences of the bomb and the extratropical cyclones. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the capacity of response of the Protection and Civil Defense of Santa Catarina state has been reduced. At the municipal level, the Praia Grande city hall warned about both cyclone events. The warnings had been updated as soon as they were getting additional information. Because of these occurrences, a team composed of Disaster Report