At least 66 people died and 101 remain missing in southern Brazil, who is experiencing a catastrophe due to floods after heavy rains, Civil Defense reported on Sunday.
In Rio Grande do Sul, more than 80,000 people have been evicted and 15,000 are in shelters installed by authorities in the state, while numerous people wait for rescue in their homes.
From the flooded streets or from the air, the images are devastating: houses whose roofs can barely be seen, people who lost everything, and the center of Porto Alegre, the capital, of 1.4 million people, completely flooded. This Sunday morning the rains are intermittent, but the waters are advancing.
According to the mayor’s office, the level of the Guaíba River located in the city marked 5.30 meters, above the record of 4.76 meters registered during historic floods in 1941.
AFP journalists noted a increase in the number of flooded areas. On Saturday night, in the popular Sarandí neighborhood, a parking lot for trucks and road machinery was completely covered by the reddish waters, and the roofs of the vehicles were barely visible.
There are 15,000 people in shelters and more than a million homes without water in the region. The destruction is incalculable, according to Civil Defense.
An “unprecedented” situation
Governor Eduardo Leite, who This Sunday he will receive President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the second time since the tragedy was declared, described the situation as “dramatic” and “absolutely unprecedented.” Sunday “will be a key day for rescues,” said the Minister of Communication of the Presidency, Paulo Pimenta.
The scenes of people on roofs waiting for help, of boats and canoes on streets and avenues, or of 4×4 trucks helping with impossible crossings are repeated over and over again. The state will need a kind of “Marshall Plan” to rebuild, Governor Leite said, after the waters recede, and when the rains stop.
Now the concern is about the supply of food and the continuity of the productive chain in this agricultural state, the fifth GDP in Brazil.
The mayor of Porto Alegre, Sebastiao Melo, urged the population to ration water, after four of the city’s six treatment plants had to be closed.
City under siege
The Road Police told AFP that the arrival from the south It is cut off about 15 km away, while from the north you can still access the city. Porto Alegre International Airport suspended its operations on Friday Indefinitely.
Electricity is also disappearing in areas. The number of missing people is increasing. There are already 101 people. And 155 injured. But the isolation of some municipalities raises fears of even more tragic figures.
The disaster forced 80,500 people to leave their homes, according to the latest Civil Defense report on Sunday.
