The authorities gave orders to evacuate certain neighborhoods of Porto Alegre, a metropolis with some 1.4 million inhabitants, located at the confluence of several rivers.
The floods which have been devastating southern Brazil for several days have driven nearly 70,000 people from their homes and left around sixty dead and dozens missing, a “dramatic” and “unprecedented” situation which particularly affects the large metropolis Porto Alegre.
After earlier mentioning 57 deaths, civil defense reported this Saturday evening a death toll of 55, with an additional seven deaths being the subject of an “investigation”. There are also 74 missing and 107 injured. Separately, at least two other people were killed in the explosion at a gas station in Porte Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
The disaster is ever more evident: some 69,200 people have had to leave their homes and more than a million homes are without water in this state.
The rain continues
The situation is “dramatic” and “absolutely unprecedented”, declared this Saturday Eduardo Leite, governor of the state where nearly 320 localities are affected. Fearing for “supply” and “the production chain”, he called for a “Marshall Plan” to rebuild the region.
A large part of the municipalities find themselves isolated, roads having been cut by floods or landslides, and communications disrupted. The weather service said the severe weather had started to ease but it was expected to rain for another 24 to 36 hours.
Porto Alegre under water
The authorities gave orders to evacuate certain neighborhoods of Porto Alegre, a metropolis with some 1.4 million inhabitants, located at the confluence of several rivers.
With the rising waters of the Guaiba, the emblematic river of southern Brazil, flooding has hit the city hard, where the airport has been closed since Friday. The river level reached 5.09 meters on Saturday, surpassing the historic record of 4.76 dating from 1941.
“In a few minutes, in less than an hour, everything was flooded. I lost everything, the television, the wardrobe, the bed, the fridge, everything,” says José Augusto Moraes from Lima, a 61-year-old trader. , who lives in the Navegantes neighborhood, in the northern part of the city.
It was in this neighborhood that a flooded gas station, located on an avenue, exploded, killing two people and generating a thick cloud of smoke visible from afar. Firefighters were evacuating victims of the fire suffering from burns.
Evacuations
In many places, long queues formed hoping to board a bus, while motorists tried to make their way through flooded roadways.
Referring to another river that runs through the city, Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastiao Melo wrote on X that the dam holding back the Gravatai River “has started overflowing again.”
“The communities must leave the area,” he said.
He also asked the population to ration water, after four of the city’s six treatment plants had to be closed. This Sunday “will be a key day for relief operations”, warned the Minister of Communication Paulo Pimenta, who came on site with other ministers.
Porto Alegre is the capital of one of the most prosperous states in the country, with the fifth largest GDP in Latin America’s largest economy and primarily agricultural production, with important crops of soy, rice, wheat and corn.
Baby rescued by helicopter
Housing areas drowned as far as the eye can see, roads destroyed or bridges swept away by the current: the human and material damage is considerable and especially concentrated in the central region of this state bordering Argentina and Uruguay.
President Lula released a video showing members of the armed forces rescuing a baby by helicopter. We see an officer hitting the roof of a house with a brick to remove the baby, wrapped in a blanket.
To the north of Rio Grande do Sul, the neighboring state of Santa Catarina is also hit by the rains. Rio Grande do Sul has already been hit several times by deadly bad weather, notably in September, when 31 people died after the passage of a devastating cyclone.
According to experts, these extreme weather phenomena have increased in frequency and intensity with global warming.
Brazil experienced a historic drought last year in the north of the country and the number of forest fires reached a record from January to April, with more than 17,000 outbreaks recorded across the country, more than half in Amazonia.
