– People have made barricades with sandbags in front of hospitals to stop the water. It feels like a horror movie, says Isolete Neumann, who lives in the flood-stricken city of Lajeado in southern Brazil, to the AP news agency.
Ever since Monday, the rain has been pouring down over large areas in the southern region, which has created major challenges for the inhabitants.
So far, 57 people have been confirmed dead, 64 are missing and 70,000 people have been displaced from the water, according to the Brazilian Civil Defense.
Altogether, over half a million inhabitants are without clean drinking water and electricity, writes the BBC.
The relief crews are working hard to evacuate the residents of Porto Alegre.
Photo: Anselmo Cunha / AFP
In the town of Bento Gonçalves, with more than 100,000 inhabitants, a dam collapsed earlier this week.
This created a two meter high wave through the already flooded town, where the water was already well above the house walls.
On Sunday, the entire city is still without electricity.
Many of the evacuees are gathered in large halls outside the worst flood areas.
Photo: Carlos Macedo/AP
According to Reuters, the rainy weather is the worst the region of Rio Grande do Sul has seen in 80 years.
In the million-strong city of Porto Alegre, over 1 million people are without water and the river that runs through the city has a flood level of 5.04 metres.
This is well above the flood level during the catastrophic flood of 1941.
In several places in the big city, there are also long queues of people who want to board buses. This despite the fact that all bus routes in and out of the city have been cancelled.
On Friday, all flights to and from the international airport were also closed.
What a few days ago was one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares has in recent days become a large river.
Photo: Carlos Macedo/AP
On-duty meteorologist at the Meteorological Institute, Jon Austerheim, confirms the large amounts of water.
He tells NRK that some measuring stations in southern parts of Brazil have recorded up to 500 millimeters of rainfall in one day. The Norwegian record is 230.
Brazil’s state meteorological institute believes the extreme rain is a consequence of the weather phenomenon El Nino.
According to Austerheim, it looks like the worst of the rain is now over.
Both the police and the defense are involved in the evacuation work.
Photo: Carlos Macedo/AP
Tags: dead displaced extreme weather Brazil NRK Urix Foreign news documentaries
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