The death toll from what authorities are calling the worst climate disaster ever to hit southern Brazil comes as more than 155,000 people were evacuated as torrential rains flooded vast areas of Rio Grande do Sul state. , the death toll rose to 90 after forcing the closure of the country’s main airport. 5th largest city.
Photos from Porto Alegre, one of Brazil’s busiest airports, show the main terminal completely submerged under water, with cargo planes parked in a stretch of water next to a pair of half-submerged boarding steps. It was reflected.
At least 361 people have been injured and 131 are missing in what Governor Eduaro Leite called the state’s “biggest climate change in history.” More than 48,000 people are living in dozens of evacuation centers.
“The state is facing a war-like situation,” Leite told reporters on Sunday, as President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva flew to the area to oversee rescue efforts. Ta.
“This is one of those events that will go down in history,” Leite added. Leyte declared a state of emergency in 397 of the province’s 497 towns and cities.
One of the worst-hit cities was Porto Alegre, the state capital on the Guaiba River. On Sunday morning, water levels in the waterway reached a record high of 5.33 meters (17.5 feet), even higher than during the historic 1941 flood, when it rained for more than 20 consecutive days.
“Porto Alegre has been devastated, leaving virtually the entire city without water, electricity and food supplies,” O Globo newspaper reported on Tuesday, adding that the city, which had 1.4 million residents flooded, was “an unprecedented disaster. He said he was in a state of “unprecedented sadness.”
Local journalist Rodrigo Lopez I posted a video In it, he appeared to be paddling a canoe through normally busy streets, past flooded shopping centers and banks. “It’s amazing how quiet it is in an area that is usually full of people… and the only sound you can hear is the sound of the boat’s oars,” Lopez said as the boat moved through the coffee-colored waters. “Porto Alegre’s heart is broken,” he wrote.
Four major highways connecting the capital with the rest of the state have been completely blocked, and the stadiums of the region’s two biggest soccer teams, Gremio and Internacional, have also been found submerged in water, prompting their clubs to cancel their matches. I had no choice but to ask.
“Please stay off the roads…only if absolutely necessary…the entire state of Rio Grande do Sul is in chaos,” state transport secretary Jubil Costella told local station Radio Gaucha. .
An estimated 1.3 million people were affected across Rio Grande do Sul state after a week of heavy rains, local authorities said.
A local photographer who visited Vale do Tacari, a hard-hit municipality about 100 kilometers from the capital, described the devastating destruction. “The houses looked like toys that a child had dismantled,” Jefferson Botega told Zero Hora.
After newsletter promotion
Speaking Sunday, the governor said it was not the time to look for culprits or politicize the crisis, and called for a Marshall Plan-style rebuilding package to deal with what he called a “post-war” situation. But questions are mounting over the city of Porto Alegre’s lack of preparedness for flooding and growing anger over the human toll caused by the rains.
“Porto Alegre has not invested a single penny to prevent floods in 2023,” local newspaper Zero Hora said on its front page on Tuesday after an elderly man wearing an orange life jacket was rescued from his home after being swallowed. It was announced along with a photo. With over 1 meter of brown water.
Prominent left-wing politician Erica Hilton said such investments “would have made the Porto Alegre tragedy inevitable. This is an unprecedented weather event.”
But the government’s inaction made the situation worse, she wrote on social media. “[And] This has implications. Catastrophe was inevitable, but if these investments had been made, fewer people would likely have lost their possessions, homes, and lives. And we need to talk about this. ”
On Tuesday afternoon, there was little sign that Rio Grande do Sul’s harrowing moment was nearing an end. Officials warned that the floodwaters that overwhelmed the state capital would soon start moving elsewhere, inundating surrounding areas where residents have been evacuated. Meanwhile, forecasters predicted new storms and heavy rain in the southern part of the state.
