PORO ALEGRE (AP) — From top to bottom, rescuers scoured Porto Alegre buildings for citizens trapped in apartments or on rooftops as unprecedented flooding turned the streets of the Brazilian city into rivers. In the district of Sarandí, the state capital, firefighters first evacuated other people who had taken refuge on the roofs of buildings and then intervened on the upper floors.
“Now we are evacuating those on the second and third floors,” Daniel Batista da Rocha, a firefighter in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, told AFP on Sunday. But the task is complex in a city with many high- Buildings, wide avenues and some 1. 4 million inhabitants are erected.
“There is a lot of water. . . it is profound. The (rescue) boats are at the same height as the electrical wires. So to sail you have to cut the cables,” said Rocha, dressed in a wetsuit. and yellow helmet.
The flooding killed at least 83 other people in the state early Monday, according to the civil coverage agency, dozens of people were missing and about 115,000 more people were forced to flee their homes.
In addition to Porto Alegre, many cities and towns have been affected, leaving thousands of people without water, electricity, telephone or internet.
Time is running out for rescuers to achieve what is still missing in the worst climate crisis ever to hit Brazil’s wealthy southern region. According to the Porto Alegre mayor’s office, the point of the Guaíba River that crosses the city managed to reach about 5. 5 meters. on Sunday, higher than the previous record set by the historic floods of 1941.
Volunteers assisted rescuers in the search operation.
“We are doing everything we can to help. Everyone helps in their own way,” said volunteer Luis Eduardo da Silva, 32, from Porto Alegre.
Their project was to gather essential materials, such as life jackets, water and fuel, to take to those in need. He said those deliveries were made on the day when it is “easiest to locate” other people amid the devastation.
“At night it was complicated,” Silva explains.
People were also delivering bottled water and food at makeshift distribution points in the city and at fuel stations.
The state government has requested donations of mattresses, sheets and personal hygiene products. Many neighbors lent boats and jet skis for the rescue work.