(CNN Spanish) — The number of fatalities linked to damage due to heavy rains in several cities in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, rises to 56, according to the latest report this Saturday from Civil Defense authorities.
The latest count shows that there are 74 people injured and 67 missing.
The displacement and isolation of people, especially due to floods, left 8,296 people in shelters and more than 24,500 people homeless, according to the official report.
Civil Defense estimates that in some 281 municipalities the number of people affected increased to almost 377,500.
The state is going through “its biggest meteorological catastrophe,” according to the Secretary of Social Communication of the Presidency of Brazil, Paulo Pimenta, in statements cited by Agencia Brasil.
“I have never seen anything like it. I know our state very well. I have faced delicate and dramatic situations. But I can assure you that I have never seen a situation like this,” said Pimenta, who is a native of that region. “This flooding we are facing will far exceed what happened to our state in 1941.”
Volunteers use a fishing boat to rescue residents trapped inside their homes in São Sebastião do Cai, Rio Grande do Sul state. (Anselmo Cunha/AFP/Getty Images)
The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, warned Thursday night that the state capital, Porto Alegre, with more than 1,300,000 people, runs the risk of suffering the largest flood in its history due to the rapid rise of the waters of Lake Guaíba, on the outskirts of the city, which could exceed five meters on Saturday.
“I want to ask once again that people have a sense of urgency regarding what is happening in the State. It is very important that the population takes the recommendations seriously and seeks to protect themselves, that they respond to this call due to the unprecedented emergency that we are experiencing and leave the risk areas.”
Porto Alegre suffered the largest flood in its history in 1941, which left 70,000 people homeless, a quarter of the city’s then-272,000 inhabitants, according to data cited by the city government.
Rio Grande do Sul has been increasingly affected by extreme weather events in recent years. More than 30 people died in the state in September after heavy rains.
The climate crisis, caused primarily by humans burning fossil fuels, is causing extreme weather around the world, making many events more intense and frequent.
In just the last few weeks, record rainfall has brought deadly flooding and brought chaos to the desert city of Dubai, reservoirs across Southeast Asia have been drying up due to a persistent regional heatwave and a drought continues, while Kenya is battling floods and heavy rains that have overflowed river banks and killed nearly 200 people.
Last year was the hottest on record, and air and ocean temperatures rose beyond many scientists’ predictions. The world is already 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than in pre-industrial times.
According to the UN, the proportion of high-intensity hurricanes, or tropical cyclones, has increased due to rising global temperatures. Heat waves are becoming more frequent and lasting longer.
Scientists have also found that storms are more likely to stop and cause devastating rain and to last longer after making landfall.
Michael RiosStefano Pozzebon, CNN’s Lianne Kolirin contributed to this report.
This report has been updated
