The World - News from Feb. 23, 1988

Rescue crews in Rio de Janeiro, which has been ravaged by floods and mudslides since violent rains began late Friday night, continued to search for survivors as Brazilian officials tried to persuade slum dwellers to abandon rickety hillside shacks. Storms over the last four days have killed at least 75 people, civil defense workers said, raising the statewide death toll from February rains to more than 270. In the Rio suburb of Abolicao, 16 people were rescued and 11 bodies recovered from one collapsed apartment building. Rescue workers in the hilly Santa Teresa district continued to search for bodies at a hospital where at least 30 people were buried in a mudslide three days ago.