Raging floods and mudslides in southern Brazil have killed at least 57 people and caused almost 70,000 people to evacuate their homes, according to the country’s civil defence agency.
Civil defence officials reported that the catastrophic flooding injured at least 74 individuals and left another 67 missing.
The toll did not include two persons killed in an explosion at a flooded petrol station in Porto Alegre, which was witnessed by an AFP journalist while rescue crews were attempting to refuel.
Rapidly rising water levels in the state of Rio Grande do Sul were putting a pressure on dams and posing a particular threat to economically significant Porto Alegre, a metropolis of 1.4 million people.
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 scrambled to evacuate swamped neighborhoods as rescue workers used four-wheel-drive vehicles — and even jet skis — to maneuver through waist-deep water in search of the stranded.
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 services to and from the city center were canceled.
The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period.
Joao Guilherme, a 23-year-old salesman, found his way to safety in the state capital — but without his cell phone.
“I have no communication with anybody, I’m very shaken,” he said.
The speed of the rising waters unnerved Greta Bittencourt, 32, a professional poker player.
“It’s terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way, it rose at a very high speed,” Bittencourt said.
‘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 could 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.
‘Disastrous cocktail’
Roughly a third of the displaced have been brought to shelters set up in sports centers, schools and other facilities.
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.”
