In southern Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Sul remains devastated by floods, which caused the death of around sixty people and forced 70,000 other residents from their homes. More than a million homes are deprived of water and the scale of the destruction is currently incalculable, according to civil defense. In total, half a million people were directly affected by the disaster and at least seventy-four people are still missing.
The streets are waterlogged. The roofs of some houses are barely visible from the sky. Residents lost everything in a matter of minutes and the center of Porto Alegre, the modern capital of the state in which 1.4 million people live, was completely flooded.
According to the municipality, the Guaiba, the river that runs through the city, reached the highest level ever recorded at 5.09 meters – well above the historic level of 4.76 meters recorded during the 1941 floods.
The water continues to advance in the metropolis and around a hundred other localities, with ever more dramatic consequences. Rainfall eased overnight Saturday into Sunday but is expected to persist for twenty-four to thirty-six hours, with authorities now warning of landslides.
Lack of food, water rationing
Eduardo Leite, the state governor, who described the situation as “dramatic and absolutely unprecedented”, will receive Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Sunday for the second time since the floods began. He has already called for a “Marshall Plan” to rebuild the region.
In the meantime, on the ground, the same scenes are repeated: residents taking refuge on their roofs waiting for help and small boats navigating what were streets and avenues. Sunday will be a “key day” for relief operations, presidential communications minister Paulo Pimenta said.
Concern is also starting to rise regarding the lack of food and the breakdown of production chains in this agricultural state, one of the most dynamic in Brazil and which accounts for a fifth of the country’s GDP.
Given the risks of shortages, Porto Alegre Mayor Sebastiao Melo called on the population to ration water after the forced closure of four of the city’s six water treatment plants.
Cut off from the rest of the country
The floods have, in part, cut Porto Alegre off from the rest of the country. According to the traffic police, access routes from the south are cut off about 15 kilometers from the city, but it is still possible to access it from the north. The main bus station is flooded and closed, and Porto Alegre International Airport has suspended all operations since Friday for an indefinite period.
Rio Grande do Sul has already been hit several times by deadly bad weather, notably in September 2023, when the passage of a devastating cyclone caused the death of 31 people.
According to experts, these extreme weather phenomena have increased in frequency and intensity with global warming. Brazil experienced a historic drought in 2023 in the north of the country and the number of wildfires reached a record from January to April.
