SAO PAULO, Brazil — With over 500 people dead from heavy flooding in Brazil, the 32-man Jamaican football contingent in Sao Paulo remain safe at their Pousada Clube Resort in Serra Negra.

Heavy rains pelted the compound throughout the nights but the facility’s drainage proved equal to the task.

Team manager Roy Simpson reassures the Jamaican people that the national team is safe and doing well.

“I want to make it absolutely clear and to reassure all parents, the players are safe and we are still training. We do send out our condolences and regrets for the lives lost. However, where we are located, we are quiet safe and we remained focus and committed,” said Simpson.

Torrents of mud and water set off by heavy rains left a trail of destruction through the mountainous Serrana region near the city of Rio de Janeiro, toppling houses, buckling roads and burying entire families as they slept.

It turned out to be the country’s worst natural disaster late Thursday, with the number of casualties rising to 506, surpassing the devastating 1967 mudslides in Caraguatatuba, Sao Paulo state, which killed 430 people, it was reported here.

In one report on television, a woman was rescued dramatically from her house as she climbed to the top while the building was being torn apart.

A rope was thrown to her and in the nick of time, she was pulled to safety from the treacherous roaring waters.

Just like in Jamaica, the brunt of the disaster was borne by poorer rural residents in houses built in risky areas without formal planning permission.

Hence, the Brazilian authorities have been criticised for a lack of disaster planning and allowing people to build homes in areas known to become treacherous in the rainy season.

Television images showed rescuers trying to haul residents from raging flood waters, and going through the ruins of homes in search of survivors, often finding only corpses.

In what was reported to be a real miracle, a six-month-old baby was rescued from the rubble of a house forcing residents into wild celebrations.

But as far as the young Reggae Boyz were concerned, it is work as usual as they trained on a muddy pitch on Thursday and again yesterday.

With 10 days left of the six weeks camp, a few more practice games are in store and the Boyz should be in action again tomorrow.

To date, the boys have won one of the seven games, beating Rio Claro 5-1 while drawing 3-3 with Paulinia.