(Porto Alegre) The south of Brazil, still largely under water, is preparing to face new intense rains this weekend, prolonging an already critical situation marked by the death of at least 126 people and an explosion in the number of displaced.
The torrential rains that fell last week in the state of Rio Grande do Sul caused rivers to overflow, affecting nearly two million people and leaving 756 injured, according to the latest report released Friday evening by Defense civil.
With 141 people still missing, authorities fear the toll will continue to rise as the region expects “heavy” rainfall throughout the weekend.
Over the past 24 hours, the number of people forced to evacuate their homes since last week has almost doubled, reaching 411,000 people, according to Civil Defense. Of this total, more than 71,000 victims were taken care of in shelters, where the authorities worked to reassure after reports of theft and violence.
PHOTO DIEGO VARA, REUTERS
A man carries two dogs evacuated during the flood in Porto Alegre.
New rains hit the state on Friday, particularly its capital Porto Alegre, and the National Institute of Meteorology announced “heavy and persistent” precipitation throughout the weekend and into the start of the week.
Meteorologist Catia Valente warned of the risk of new landslides on the north coast in particular: “This is what worries us the most at the moment,” she said.
In the meantime, authorities are mobilizing thousands of troops to distribute tons of food aid, as well as mattresses and other supplies from across the country.
In the regional capital of 1.4 million inhabitants, bottled water remained rare, despite the incessant ballet, night and day, of tanker trucks supplying shelters, hospitals, buildings and even hotels.
Despite the new rains, residents are trying to find a semblance of normality.
Some stores are reopening, while water has begun to slowly recede from some neighborhoods where traffic is heavy due to many streets still flooded across the city.
The violence of these historic floods damaged or destroyed more than 85,000 homes.
The state governor, Eduardo Leite, estimated that “entire areas” of certain localities devastated by water will have to be “moved”, which will cost “several millions”. On Thursday, he estimated the cost of reconstruction at 19 billion reais (3.4 billion euros).
The federal government promised Thursday to release some nine billion euros for the reconstruction of the disaster region.
“More extreme” climate
PHOTO ADRIANO MACHADO, REUTERS
Brazilian paddlers Evaldo Mathias Becker and Piedro Tuchtenhagen carry a rowboat after others to help Porto Alegre rescue operations.
Fields and machines under water, livestock farms and warehouses inaccessible, the natural disaster also hit hard the agricultural sector, the engine of the local and national economy.
In the rice fields surrounding Porto Alegre, AFP journalists noted that the water level made crops inaccessible.
Rice is one of the main crops of this state, the southernmost of the country, as well as an essential food on the plate of Brazilians.
Rice fields “with up to two meters of water were lost”, testifies Daniel Dalbosco, who owns 300 hectares of land in Eldorado do Sul, west of Porto Alegre. His neighbors “lost between 40 and 50 hectares. It’s very, very complicated,” sighs the farmer.
Clare Nullis, a spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a UN agency, said on Friday that the flooding was the result of global warming coupled with the natural weather phenomenon El Niño.
“Even if El Niño fades, which it will, the long-term effects of climate change will be felt. Every fraction of a degree of temperature increase means our climate will become more extreme,” she said at a press conference in Geneva.
“Our climate is on steroids” and extreme floods and intense heat waves will continue to “multiply,” she warned.