More than 88,000 people have been displaced as floods hit Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Massive flooding in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul over the past seven days has killed at least 75 people and reported another 103 missing, according to local authorities.
Damage from the rains also forced more than 88,000 people to flee their homes, state civil defense authorities said on Sunday. About 16,000 people sought refuge in schools, gymnasiums and other emergency shelters.
The floods left a trail of devastation, including landslides, flooded roads and collapsed bridges across the state. Operators reported power and communications outages. According to the Civil Defense, which cited figures from the water company Corsan, more than 800,000 people are without water supplies.
“I repeat and insist: the devastation we are facing is unprecedented,” Gov. Eduardo Leite said Sunday morning. He had previously said that the state needed a “kind of ‘Marshall Plan’ for reconstruction.”
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva visited Rio Grande do Sul for the second time on Sunday, accompanied by Defense Minister Jose Mucio, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Environment Minister Marina Silva, among others. The leader and his team monitored the flooded streets of the state capital Porto Alegre from a helicopter.
“We have to stop chasing disasters. “We have to see in advance what disasters could happen and we have to work on them,” President Lula told reporters afterwards.
The Guaiba River reached a record level of 5.33 m (17.5 feet) on Sunday morning, surpassing levels during a historic flood in 1941 when the river reached 4.76 m (15.6 feet).
During Sunday Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for the people of the state. “May the Lord welcome the dead and comfort their families and those who have had to leave their homes,” he said.
The downpour began on Monday and was expected to continue until Sunday. Some areas such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities received more than 300 mm (11.8 inches) of rain in less than a week on Thursday, Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, known by its Portuguese acronym INMET, said.
The heavy rains were the fourth such environmental disaster in the state in a year, following floods in July, September and November 2023 that killed 75 people.
Weather across South America is influenced by the climate phenomenon El Nino, a periodic, naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has previously caused droughts in the north and heavy rains in the south.
This year, the impact of El Niño has been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change.
“These tragedies will continue to happen, getting worse and more frequent,” said Suely Araujo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory, a network of dozens of environmental and social groups.
Brazil must adapt to the impacts of climate change, she said in a statement Friday, referring to a process known as adaptation.