Published on 05.05.2024
A race against time began on Sunday in the south of Brazil to deal with the monster floods which devastated the state of Rio Grande do Sul, causing the death of around sixty people and driving 70,000 others from their homes.
From the waterlogged streets or from the sky, the scale of the disaster is striking: houses whose roofs can barely be seen, residents who lost everything in a few minutes and the center of Porto Alegre, the modern capital of the state where 1.4 million people live, completely flooded.
According to the municipality, the Guaiba River which crosses the city has reached a record level of 5.09 meters, well beyond the historic peak of 4.76 m recorded during the floods of 1941.
The water continues to advance in the metropolis and around a hundred other localities, with ever more dramatic consequences.
In addition to the approximately 70,000 people evacuated from their homes, more than a million homes are deprived of water and the scale of the destruction is currently incalculable.
ats, afp
