The metropolitan region of Porto Alegre, the most important city in southern Brazil, had entire neighborhoods under water this Saturday due to historic floods that have caused at least 56 deaths and 74 missing since the beginning of the week.
The flooding of the Guaíba River, unprecedented since 1941, has left the capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul practically isolated, flooding the bus station and forcing the suspension of operations at the international airport on Friday night, which for less will remain closed until Monday.
The municipality of Canoas, in the metropolitan area, is one of the most affected by the floods and is completely under water.
The rescue teams worked hard this Saturday to rescue the inhabitants who climbed onto the roof of their houses, while inside their homes the water had destroyed all their belongings.
Many citizens took their vehicles to the highest part of a viaduct to prevent the water from swallowing them.
The capital was somewhat luckier, since in the port area it has metal gates five meters high, which can be closed to protect the city from the flooding of the river. However, this is the first time that water has penetrated the city since the construction of the system of walls and dams in 1974.
The water has invaded many neighborhoods along the coast, has cut off access to the airport and has even flooded the Gremio soccer stadium, one of the two large clubs in the city.
The capital only remains connected to the rest of Brazil by one highway, heading east, and the rest has blockades.
Throughout Rio Grande do Sul, a region of 11 million inhabitants bordering Argentina and Uruguay, the situation is very worrying.
Floods and landslides caused by the rains have caused 128 total or partial blockages on 61 roads.
In total, regional authorities estimate that there are 317 affected municipalities and 510,585 victims, among which 82,000 people have had to leave their homes.
The number of confirmed deaths is 56, but could rise to 63, since there are seven deaths under investigation. To this, there are 74 missing people.
The governor of Rio Grande do Sul, Eduardo Leite, said in a press conference that “the rain has begun to give a truce,” but he anticipated that the region will face difficulties for several days, until the rivers return to their channel, and Afterwards, you will require financial help to recover.
“Rio Grande do Sul is going to need a Marshall recovery plan,” said Leite in a speech alongside the Minister of Social Communication, Paulo Pimenta.
The Brazilian Government has mobilized to support the regional administration by sending nearly a thousand soldiers, as well as helicopters and rescue vehicles.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will travel to Porto Alegre this Sunday for the second time since the crisis began to supervise rescue and aid distribution efforts.
These floods are the most serious that Rio Grande do Sul has recorded and occur after a sequence of four meteorological disasters since last June.
The most serious so far, an extratropical cyclone recorded last November, caused the death of nearly 50 people in the Taquari River valley, one of the regions that has been hit again by floods on this occasion.
Meteorologists have attributed these extreme weather events to the El Niño phenomenon, which causes increased rainfall in this part of the country.
