Sao Paulo:

At least 100 people have died and nearly 100,000 homes have been destroyed or significantly damaged from more than a week of record rainfall and flooding in south Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state, local authorities have said.

The National Confederation of Municipalities said in an update on Wednesday that overflowing rivers and floods in the state have affected around 1.45 million people and forced some 200,000 residents to flee their homes, Xinhua news agency reported.

Based on data from the Civil Defense agency, some 99,800 residences of all types have sustained either total or partial damage since the state’s worst weather-related disaster hit on April 29, according to the confederation.

As many as 414 of 497 towns in the state, a top agricultural and livestock producer that borders Argentina and Uruguay, have suffered from the storms and declared emergencies.

The confederation estimates the economic losses at 4.6 billion reals (about $904 million), taking into account the damage to housing and public infrastructure, as well as agriculture, livestock, industry, commerce and services.

In just one week, Rio Grande do Sul saw five months’ worth of rain, sparking unprecedented flooding.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Porto Alegre:

Nearly 70,000 people have been forced from their homes amid deadly flooding, mudslides and torrential storms in southern Brazil, with the major city of Porto Alegre particularly hard-hit, the country’s civil defense agency said Saturday.

Raging floodwaters have left 57 dead, 74 people injured and another 67 missing, civil defense said.

The death count did not include two people who died in an explosion at a flooded gas station in Porto Alegre, witnessed by an AFP journalist, where rescue crews were attempting to refuel.

Fast-rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were straining dams and particularly threatening economically important Porto Alegre, a city of 1.4 million. 

The Guaiba River, which flows through the city, is at a historic high of 5.04 meters (16.5 feet), well above the 4.76 meters that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods.

Authorities were scrambling to evacuate swamped neighborhoods as residents struggled in chaotic conditions to find their way to safety.

In addition to the 69,200 residents forced from their homes, civil defense also said more than a million people lacked access to potable water amid the flooding, describing damage as incalculable.

Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said his state — normally one of Brazil’s most prosperous — would need a “Marshall Plan” of heavy investment to rebuild after the catastrophe.

In many places, long lines formed as people tried to board buses, although bus service to and from the city center was canceled.

The Porto Alegre International Airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period. 

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva posted a video of a helicopter depositing a soldier atop a house, where he used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and rescue a baby wrapped in a blanket.

In a northern Porto Alegre suburb, 61-year-old Jose Augusto Moraes looked shaken after fast-rising floodwaters engulfed his house and he had to call firefighters to rescue a trapped child.

“I lost everything,” he told AFP. 

‘Going to be much worse’

With waters starting to overtop a dike along another local river, the Gravatai, Mayor Sebastiao Malo issued a stern warning on social media platform X, saying, “Communities must leave!”

He urged people to ration water, after four of the city’s six treatment plants had to be closed.

In a live transmission on Instagram, Governor Leite said the situation was “absolutely unprecedented,” the worst in the history of the state, home to agroindustrial production of soy, rice, wheat and corn.

Residential areas were underwater as far as the eye can see, with roads destroyed and bridges swept away by powerful currents.

Rescuers faced a colossal task, with entire towns inaccessible.

At least 300 municipalities have suffered storm damage in Rio Grande do Sul since Monday, according to local officials.

‘Water up to my waist’

Roughly a third of the displaced have been brought to shelters set up in sports centers, schools, and other facilities.

“When I left the house, I was in water up to my waist,” a haggard-looking Claudio Almiro, 55, told AFP in a cultural center converted to a shelter in a suburb north of Porto Alegre.

He said that while he had lost everything, “Many people lost their lives, so I raise my hands to heaven and thank God for having survived.”

The rains also affected the southern state of Santa Catarina, where one man died Friday when his car was swept away by raging floodwaters in the municipality of Ipira.

Lula, who visited the region Thursday, blamed the disaster on climate change.

The devastating storms were the result of a “disastrous cocktail” of global warming and the El Nino weather phenomenon, climatologist Francisco Eliseu Aquino told AFP on Friday. 

South America’s largest country has recently experienced a string of extreme weather events, including a cyclone in September that claimed at least 31 lives.

Aquino said the region’s geography meant it was often confronted by the effects of tropical and polar air masses colliding — but these events have “intensified due to climate change.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Sao Paulo:

The death count from rains in Brazil’s southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 57, local authorities said on Saturday afternoon, while dozens still have not been accounted for.

Rio Grande do Sul’s civil defense authority said 67 people were still missing and more than 32,000 had been displaced as storms have affected nearly two thirds of the 497 cities in the state, which borders Uruguay and Argentina.

Floods destroyed roads and bridges in several regions of the state. The storm also triggered landslides and the partial collapse of a dam at a small hydroelectric power plant. A second dam in the city of Bento Goncalves is also at risk of collapsing, authorities said.

In Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the Guaiba lake broke its banks, flooding streets.

Porto Alegre’s international airport has suspended all flights for an indefinite period.

Rains are expected in the northern and northeastern regions of the state in the next 36 hours, but the volume of precipitation has been declining, and should be well below the peak seen earlier in the week, according to the state meteorology authority.

Still, “rivers water levels should stay high for some days”, Governor Eduardo Leite said on Saturday in a live video on his social media, adding it is difficult to determine for how long.

Rio Grande do Sul is at a geographical meeting point between tropical and polar atmospheres, which has created a weather pattern with periods of intense rains and others of drought.

Local scientists believe the pattern has been intensifying due to climate change.

Heavy rains had already hit Rio Grande do Sul last September, as an extratropical cyclone caused floods that killed more than 50 people.

That came after more than two years of a persistent drought due to the La Nina phenomenon, with only scarce showers.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Swiped off: Rubble of houses destroyed by landslips following heavy rains in Petropolis, Brazil, on March 23.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Rescuers in boats and aircraft raced against the clock on March 24 to help isolated people in Brazil’s mountainous southeast after storms and heavy rains killed at least 20 people.

With more rain predicted on March 24, the deluge pounded the States of Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo, where authorities described a chaotic situation due to flooding. The death toll rose there from four to 12 on Sunday as rescuers advanced.

The most affected municipality is Mimoso do Sul, a town of almost 25,000 inhabitants located in the south of Espirito Santo, where at least 10 people died in floods, though officials fear the toll may yet rise. State Governor Renato Casagrande described the situation as “chaotic,” saying that so far it has not been possible to assess the damage in some of the more isolated areas, with fears the toll could yet rise. Search teams rescued a girl buried for more than 16 hours in the city of Petropolis. Her father, who was found dead next to her on Saturday, had “heroically protected the girl with his body,” a neighbour said.

The deluge came as Brazil, South America’s largest country, suffers through a recent string of extreme weather events, which experts say are more likely to occur due to climate change.

Such tragedies “are intensifying with climate change,” President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said in a post on X, adding that thousands had been left homeless by the storm. He expressed sympathy for the victims, and said his government was working with state and local authorities to “protect, prevent and repair flood damage.”