“We haven’t eaten for three days”: floods in Brazil kill 100 and displace 150,000 | Brazil

The devastating floods that hit the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul caused 100 deaths, according to the authorities’ official report made this Wednesday, including thousands of displaced people and desperate survivors in search of food and basic supplies. Rescue teams have been rushing to try to free people who were trapped.

On the outskirts of Eldorado do Sul, 17 kilometers from the state capital, Porto Alegre, many people were sleeping on the side of the road and told Reuters they were getting hungry. Entire families were heading out on foot, carrying their belongings in backpacks and shopping carts. “We haven’t eaten for three days and it’s only now that we received this blanket. I’m with people I don’t even know, I don’t know where my family is,” said a young man who gave his name as Ricardo Junior.

The floods hampered rescue efforts, with dozens of people still waiting to be evacuated by boat or helicopter from the affected homes. Small boats crossed the flooded city looking for survivors.

The Civil Defense of Rio Grande do Sul reported this Wednesday that the death toll rose to 100, while 128 people remain missing and 155,000 are homeless.

Heavy rains that began last week caused rivers to flood, flooding entire cities and destroying roads and bridges. The rain is expected to ease on Thursday but continue through the weekend.

Climatologists attributed the extreme rainfall in Rio Grande do Sul to the confluence of a heat wave caused by the phenomenon El Niño this year, which warms the waters of the Pacific and brings rain to southern Brazil; a weaker cold front with rain and gales coming from Antarctica; and unusual heat in the Atlantic that also increases humidity. O global warming aggravates these phenomena and intensifies the effects between these systems, making the weather unpredictable, said Marcelo Schneider, researcher at the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet).

Electricity cuts

In Porto Alegre, a city with 1.3 million inhabitants, the streets in the city center were submerged after the Guaíba River overtopped its banks with a record level of water. Residents of Porto Alegre faced empty shelves in supermarkets and closed gas stations, with stores rationing the sale of mineral water. Porto Alegre City Hall distributed water in trucks to hospitals and shelters that received the homeless.

The floods also affected water and electricity services, with more than 1.4 million people affected in total, according to Civil Defense.

Almost half a million people were left without electricity in Porto Alegre and peripheral cities, as electricity companies cut off supplies for safety reasons in flooded neighborhoods. National grid operator ONS reported that five hydroelectric dams and transmission lines were closed due to heavy rain.

The city’s airport, with the plane parking area under water, has suspended all flights since Friday.

The fuel shortage was reported when state oil company Petrobras said it was having problems transporting diesel from its refinery in Canoas, in the Porto Alegre metropolitan region, which was heavily flooded, according to information provided by a senior government official.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on a government television program that the extent of the damage will only be known when the waters recede. The Brazilian President promised federal aid for the state in what is considered the worst climate disaster in its history.

JP Morgan economists projected that the impact of the floods on the Brazilian economy would have a modest reduction in GDP growth and a marginal increase in inflation, mainly due to the increase in the prices of rice, which is mostly produced in Rio Grande do Sul. The government said that Brazil will import rice to stabilize the market.

In addition to the destruction of critical infrastructure, torrential rains and flooding left grain fields submerged and killed livestock, disrupting the soybean harvest and halting work at several meat factories.

The port of Rio Grande, one of the main cereal export ports, was operating normally, the state’s port authority reported. However, main access roads were impassable, disrupting grain deliveries to the port as trucks had to make a wide detour, exporters said.