Massive flooding in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul has killed at least 75 other people in the past seven days and another 103 people are missing, the local government said.
Damage from the rains has also forced more than 88,000 people from their homes, the state’s civil coverage government said Sunday. About 16,000 more people have sought safe haven in schools, gymnasiums and other transitional shelters.
The floods have left a devastating wake, causing landslides, washed out roads and collapsed bridges across the state. Operators reported power and communications outages. More than 800,000 people are without water, according to the civil defense, which cites figures from the Corsan water service. company.
“I repeat and insist: the devastation to which we are subjected is unprecedented,” said state governor Eduardo Leite on Sunday morning. In the past he had said that the state would want a “kind of ‘Marshall Plan’ to rebuild. “
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva briefly visited Rio Grande do Sul on Sunday, accompanied, among others, by Defense Minister José Mucio, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad and Environment Minister Marina Silva. The leader and his team surveyed the flooded streets of the state capital, Porto Alegre, from a helicopter.
“We have to avoid chasing mistakes. We have to plan in advance what mistakes will occur and we have to work,” President Lula told reporters afterwards.
The Guaiba River reached a record high of 5. 33 m (17. 5 ft) on Sunday morning, surpassing the degrees seen by a historic deluge in 1941, when the river reached 4. 76 m (15. 6 ft).
During Sunday Mass at the Vatican, Pope Francis said he was praying for the state’s other inhabitants. “May the Lord welcome the dead and comfort their families and those who have had to leave their homes,” he said.
The rains began on Monday and are expected to last until Sunday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountainsides and cities, more than 300 millimeters of rain fell in less than a week, Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology said. known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, he said Thursday.
The heavy rains are the fourth such environmental crisis in the state in a year, following floods in July, September and November 2023 that killed 75 people.
Climatic conditions in South America are affected by the El Niño weather phenomenon, a periodic natural phenomenon that warms surface waters in the equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has caused droughts in the north and heavy rains in the south.
This year, the effects of El Niño have been especially dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather events are occurring more due to human-caused climate change.
“These tragedies will continue to happen, more and more serious and more frequent,” said Suely Araujo, public policy coordinator at the Climate Observatory, a network of dozens of environmental and social groups.
Brazil will have to adapt to the effects of climate change, he said on Friday, referring to a procedure known as adaptation.