Three-year-old Isabella Severo dos Santos was caught in her home when water from the broken pipe flooded the Campo Grande neighborhood. Water shot 65 feet into the air from the pipe and forced many emergency rescues.

“Our job was to get people out of their homes as the flooding spread,” Col. Sergio Simoes told GloboNews TV as rescue teams used rubber dinghies to reach areas of the neighborhood inundated with water.

The current was so strong that cars were swept away and at least 20 homes have been destroyed. Rio de Janeiro state governor Sergio Cabral rushed to the area and pledged to help those who lost their homes find a place to live.

The governor was met with angry residents who booed him complaining that the loss of life and property was due to the country’s failure to invest in the poorer parts of the city.