The death toll from floods and mudslides triggered by torrential storms in southern Brazil has climbed to 58 people, with the major city of Porto Alegre, particularly hard-hit, the country’s civil defence agency said on Saturday.
Jerrymusa.com reports that according to an AFP journalist who saw the incident, two people perished in the explosion at a flooded petrol station in Porto Alegre while rescue workers were trying to refuel.
According to the civil defence service, 74 people have been injured, and 67 more have gone missing as a result of the rushing flood waters.
Water Level Keeps Rising
Rapidly rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were putting stress on dams and posing a special threat to the 1.4 million-person metropolis of Porto Alegre, which is significant economically.
The Guaiba River, which passes through the city, is currently at a historic high of 5.04 metres (16.5 feet), significantly higher than the previous record of 4.76 metres, which had stood since the disastrous floods of 1941.
Officials were rushing to get neighbourhoods out of the water. “Although the weather was not ideal, rescue operations are taking place day and night,” a government statement said.
A video of a soldier being dropped from a helicopter onto a house, where he used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and save a baby covered in blankets, was shared by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Jose Augusto Moraes, 61, was shaken in a suburb of Porto Alegre’s north after his house was overtaken by rapidly rising floodwaters, and he had to summon firefighters to save a trapped youngster. “Everything was lost,” he said to AFP.
“Communities must leave!” Mayor Sebastiao Malo issued a severe warning on social media site X as waters began to overtop a dike along the Gravatai, another local river.
Additionally, Rio Grande del Sul governor Eduardo Leite stated in a live Instagram broadcast that the circumstances were “absolutely unprecedented,” the worst in the history of a state that is one of Brazil’s wealthiest.
Roads were wrecked, and bridges were carried away by strong currents, submerging residential neighbourhoods to the point of view.
With entire cities rendered inaccessible and others without access to drinking water or electricity, rescuers faced an enormous task.
Over 24,600 people have been displaced as a result of storm damage that has affected at least 300 towns in Rio Grande do Sul since Monday, according to local officials.
A third or so of those who have been displaced have been placed in shelters that have been established in gyms, schools, and other locations.
In a cultural centre turned shelter in a district north of Porto Alegre, a haggard-looking Claudio Almiro, 55, told AFP, “When I left the house, I was in water up to my waist.”
“Many people lost their lives, so I raised my hands to heaven and thanked God for having survived,” he remarked, despite the fact that he had lost everything.
Rainfall also had an impact on Santa Catarina, a state in the south. On Friday, a man in the community of Ipira lost his life when his automobile was carried away by surging floodwaters.
When Lula visited the area on Thursday, he attributed the catastrophe to climate change.
Climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino told AFP on Friday that the El Nino weather phenomena and global warming combined to create a “disastrous cocktail” that caused the destructive storms.
The biggest nation in South America has recently seen a number of severe weather occurrences, including a cyclone in September that left at least 31 people dead.
Due to the region’s unique location, Aquino claimed that the effects of tropical and polar air masses merging frequently faced it, but that these occurrences had “intensified due to climate change.”