In the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, the death toll has risen to 56 and tens of thousands have been displaced.
Floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains continue to rage across southern Brazil, killing at least 56 people and forcing tens of thousands from their homes, the government said.
In addition to increasing the death toll on Saturday, the country’s civil protection agency said rising water levels in Rio Grande do Sul state were overloading dams and threatening the metropolis of Porto Alegre.
Triggered by storms that began on Monday, flooding is expected to get worse, local authorities said, as rescue workers searched the ruins of washed-out homes, bridges and roads for missing people.
“Forget everything you’ve seen, it’s going to be much worse in the metropolitan area,” Gov. Eduardo Leite said Friday as the state’s roads were flooded.
“Nothing could be saved”
According to the civil defense ministry of the southernmost state, at least 265 communities in Rio Grande do Sul have been affected by Brazil’s worst flooding in 80 years.
At least 74 people were injured, more than 24,000 were displaced and 350,000 suffered some type of property damage.
“Nothing could be saved,” said Claudio Almiro, who lost his home and belongings in the flood.
“Many people even lost their lives. I raise my hand to heaven and thank God that I am alive.”
Residents of several towns and communities are completely cut off from the world and have no electricity or telephone service, while others are forced to leave their livestock behind.
“You don’t know if the water will continue to rise or what will happen to the animals, they could drown soon,” said Raul Metzel from Capela de Santana, north of the state capital.
Five days later, with rainfall showing no signs of abating, four of the state’s dams are at risk of collapsing, posing the risk of a new “emergency situation”, according to civil defense officials.
The Brazilian federal government has sent planes, boats and more than 600 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses and set up shelters, while local volunteers have also helped with search efforts.
“Disastrous cocktail”
Climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino said the devastating storms were the result of a “catastrophic cocktail” of global warming and the El Niño weather phenomenon.
South America’s largest country has recently experienced a series of extreme weather events, including a hurricane in September that killed at least 31 people.
Aquino said that due to its peculiar geography, the region often faces the effects of collision of tropical and polar air masses – but these events have “intensified due to climate change.”
And when they coincide with El Niño, a periodic warming of water in the tropical Pacific, the atmosphere becomes more unstable, he said.