President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva flew by helicopter over the areas of Alagoas and Pernambuco states hardest hit by this week's devastating floods, and walked the mud caked streets of Palmares, a city of 60,000 in Pernambuco.

"With a catastrophe of this magnitude, it is necessary to save the maximum number of lives, evacuate people from areas that are at risk and respond to basic needs: food, health care and drinking water," Lula told a press conference in Palmares, 120 kilometers (72 miles) southwest of the state capital Recife.

Then, he said, the government should "rebuild everything that has been destroyed."

The death toll from the disaster has risen to 51, but the number of missing was drastically scaled back Thursday from several hundred to just 56.

A Justice Ministry spokesperson in Brasilia said the government was sending helicopters, vehicles, firefighters and security personnel to both states to step up relief efforts.

But residents left homeless by the floods in this riverside town in Alagoas complained that the supply of food and other staples was erratic.

"The people donate food. Before food came quickly but it's not coming any longer," said Taiti Maria da Silva, cooking black beans and noodles in small pots for her husband and two children in a gymnasium-turned-shelter here.

"Some people have pots to cook with and others don't. Those who don't are left watching, feeling the pinch. Then they eat bread, water and milk," she told AFP.

"I lost everything but I managed to save this little stove," she said.

Da Silva has been sleeping on a sheet on the gymnasium floor for four days with her husband and two children, aged two and seven.

"The floor is very hard, but mattresses don't come," she said. "There is no power at night. It is difficult to find food, milk and diapers."

Low-lying parts of this river town look like an alien world.

The Mundau River, which began to rise Saturday night, swept away the houses on both banks.

Now survivors of the deluge move slowly through a mass of mud, debris and twisted steel where their homes once stood, salvaging bricks, tiles, anything at all that might be useful.

At the town gymnasium, where dozens of destitute families have taken refuge, the arrival of a shipment of clothing drew a swarm of children and adults who fell on it looking for something to wear.

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