Rescuers are traveling to evacuate people stranded by floods in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, where at least 90 people have been killed and more than 130 others are missing.
The state capital, Porto Alegre, was virtually cut off by the floods, with the airport and bus station closed and major roads blocked.
Reporting from the city on Tuesday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Latin America editor Lucia Newman said the situation was “very desperate” as volunteers and rescue workers tried to evacuate residents.
“Everywhere you look, people have no water, no electricity. In this part of the city, which is downtown, the wastewater has completely accumulated.”
The state’s civil defense agency said the death toll had risen to 90 and another four deaths were under investigation. Another 131 people are still missing and 155,000 are homeless.
The heavy rains that began last week caused rivers to flood, inundating entire cities and destroying roads and bridges.
In Porto Alegre, a city of 1.3 million on the Guaiba River, residents faced empty supermarket shelves and closed gas stations, and stores rationed the sale of bottled water.
Five of Porto Alegre’s six water treatment plants are not functioning, and Mayor Sebastiao Melo ordered on Monday that water can only be used for “essential consumption.”
“We are experiencing an unprecedented natural disaster and everyone must help,” Melo told reporters.
“I bring water trucks to the soccer fields and people have to go there to get their bottled water. I can’t make them go from house to house.”
Nearly half a million people were without power in Porto Alegre and surrounding cities as electric companies cut power in flooded neighborhoods for safety reasons.
National electricity grid operator ONS said five hydroelectric plants and transmission lines were shut down due to the heavy rains.
Al Jazeera’s Newman reported that in nearby Eldorado do Sul, a town of 50,000 people across the river from Porto Alegre, streets were “completely” covered by flooding on Tuesday.
“It was a desolate and desperate situation for the people being rescued one by one,” Newman said. She explained that large ships were unable to enter the city, forcing rescue workers to use smaller boats.
“It could be days and weeks before everyone is safe,” she said.
The rain has stopped for now, but a looming cold front is expected to bring heavier rain starting Tuesday night, especially in the southern part of the state, according to Brazil’s National Meteorological Institute.
Rainfall could exceed 150 millimeters (nearly six inches) by early Wednesday.
Back in Porto Alegre, resident Maria Vitoria Jorge told the Associated Press that she had decided to leave her flooded apartment building in the city center behind.
She withdrew about 8,000 reais ($1,600) from her savings to rent an apartment for herself and her parents elsewhere in the state.
“I can’t shower, wash dishes or have drinking water at home,” the 35-year-old yoga instructor told the news outlet from her car as she prepared to leave her old home.
She had about four liters (one gallon) of water for the 200 km (125 mile) journey to the town of Torres, which has so far been spared from the flooding.
Another resident, Adriano Hueck, tried to retrieve medicine from a friend’s partially flooded warehouse on Tuesday.
“If we can save some of it, there’s still a chance it can be useful in hospitals,” the 53-year-old said, then pointed to another part of the city. “My house is somewhere there. You can’t even see its roof now.”
