One hundred people died, 372 were injured and 128 were missing in the unprecedented floods caused by torrential rains in southern Brazil, according to the latest report, still provisional, published Wednesday May 8 by civil defense.
The previous report showed 95 deaths and 131 missing in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, hit throughout last week by exceptionally violent bad weather.
In Porto Alegre, the regional capital, and in more than 400 localities, more than 160,000 people have already had to leave their homes because of the impressive rise in water caused by bad weather, which experts link to global warming and the phenomenon El Niño. Nearly 100,000 homes were damaged or destroyed and the economic damage reached 4.6 billion reais (around 842 million euros), according to the National Confederation of Municipalities.
Cargoes of aid and donations from across the country were landed Tuesday in the metropolis, where “the most urgent need is water,” recalled Sabrina Ribas, of civil defense. Only two of the six water treatment plants are operating and hospitals and accommodation centers are supplied with tankers, the capital’s town hall reported, after having decreed water rationing.
In a “war-like” operation, the navy is to send the aircraft carrier Atlantico, Latin America’s largest military ship, with two mobile sewage treatment plants to the region on Wednesday.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the opening of “emergency funds” by the federal government for “first aid.” For his part, the governor, Eduardo Leite, announced the release of “200 million reais [36 million euros] in emergency funds” by the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Some 15,000 soldiers, firefighters, police officers and volunteers were mobilized to rescue the victims.
