But even as families prepared to bury their dead on Thursday, 116 other people remained missing.
Rubens Bomtempo, mayor of the German-influenced city nestled in the mountains, didn't even offer an estimate for the number of people missing, with recovery efforts still ongoing, CBS reported.
"We don't yet know the full scale of this," Bomtempo said at a news conference Wednesday. "It was a hard day, a difficult day."
A local morgue started using a refrigerated truck as more victims were discovered, the Reuters news agency reports.
Survivors were digging to find loved ones who disappeared after Tuesday's landslides. Rio de Janeiro's public prosecutors' office said in a statement Wednesday night that it had compiled a list of 35 people yet to be located.
Footage posted on social media showed torrents dragging cars and houses through the streets and water swirling through the city. One video showed two buses sinking into a swollen river as its passengers clambered out the windows, scrambling for safety. Some didn't make it to the banks and were washed away, out of sight.
On Wednesday morning, houses were left buried beneath mud while appliances and cars were in piles on the streets.
MP/PR