A rescue worker walks among debris today after landslides at Caleme neighborhood in Teresopolis, Brazil. The landslides left more than 350 people dead and dozens more missing.

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil — Survivors of mudslides in mountain towns north of Rio recounted today the horrors of watching homes swept away by walls of earth and water and of frantic efforts to dig with bare hands and reach trapped neighbors.

Officials and a television report indicated the death toll in the slides climbed to more than 350, with at least 50 people still missing.

“We were like zombies, covered in mud, in the dark, digging and digging,” said Geisa Carvalho, 19, about the minutes after the slides hit about 3 a.m.

Her mother, Vania Ramos, described how she and Geisa awoke to a tremendous rumble as tons of earth above their neighborhood slid down a sheer granite rock face. The power was out, but by lightning flashes they could see a torrent of mud and water rushing just feet from their home — and the remnants of their neighbors' houses that were swept far down a hill.

“I don't even have the words to describe what I've seen,” said Ramos. “A lot of our friends are dead or missing. There are people we may never find.”

Carvalho and Ramos said they ran out of their home moments after the mudslide and joined neighbors in their Caleme neighborhood as they dug with bare hands and sticks in efforts to find neighbors. They quickly located a family of four buried under the rubble of their home — and said another neighbor's 2-month-old baby was washed away in his crib and has yet to be found.

Nearly all the homes in their neighborhood were swept to the bottom of a hill and turned inside out. Tangles of plumbing were wrapped in trees, children's' clothing littered the earth, massive trees were tossed about like toothpicks. A river of water and mud flowed through the streets as a light rain continued to fall.