At least 66 people died and 101 remain missing in southern Brazilwhich is experiencing a catastrophe due to flooding after intense rains, Civil Defense reported on Sunday.
In Rio Grande do Sulmore of 80,000 people have been evicted and 15,000 are in shelters installed by the 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 seenpeople who lost everything, and the center of modern Porto Alegrethe capital, of 1.4 million people, completely flooded.
This Sunday morning the rains are intermittent in Porto Alegre. But the waters advance uncontrollably over the metropolis.
According to the mayor’s office, the level of Guaíba River located in the city it measured 5.30 meters, above the record of 4.76 meters recorded during historic floods in 1941.
Journalists of the AFP They found a increase in the number of flooded areas. On Saturday night, in the popular Sarandi neighborhooda parking lot for trucks and road machinery was completely covered by the reddish waters, and the roofs of the vehicles could barely be seen.
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.
The governor Eduardo Leitewho this Sunday will receive the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for the second time since the tragedy was declared, described the situation as “dramatic” and “absolutely unprecedented.”
On Sunday “It will be a key day for rescues”said the Minister of Communication of the Presidency, Paulo Pimenta.
The scenes of people on rooftops waiting for helpof small boats and canoes crossing rivers on streets and avenues, or of 4×4 trucks helping with impossible crossings are repeated over and over again.
The state will need some kind of “Marshall Plan” to be rebuilt, stated Governor Leite.
But that will be after the waters recede, and when the rains stop.
Now, the concern is for the supply of food and the continuity of the productive chain in this agricultural state, fifth GDP in Brazil and one of the most thriving in the country.
The mayor of Porto Alegre, Sebastiao Melourged the population to ration water, after four of the city’s six treatment plants had to be closed.
The exceptional situation has Porto Alegre practically under siege.
The Road Police pointed out to the AFP that the arrival from the south is cut off about 15 km away, while from the north it is still possible to access the city.
The Porto Alegre international airport suspended its operations on Friday for an indefinite period.
Electricity is also disappearing in areas.
The number of missing people is increasing. They 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 homesaccording to the latest Civil Defense report on Sunday.
From the Vatican, The pope offered his “prayers for the population of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, hit by major floods. The Lord has the deceased in his heart, he comforts the family members and those who had to leave their homes,” the pontiff said.
Thathe “disastrous cocktail” of climate change and the meteorological phenomenon of The boy that favored the devastating rains that hit the south of Brazil and other extreme events, assured the AFP the brazilian climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino.
Porto Alegre, a city founded by Portuguese immigrants in 1772 and located in the middle of a huge watershedwas developed under the influence of its port, which was key to the growth of Brazil, the Andean Development Corporation (CAF) reports on its website.
Today that blessing turned into a misfortune.
(With information from AFP)
