Porto Alegre, Brazil \u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRaging floods and mudslides have killed at least 57 people in southern Brazil and forced nearly 70,000 to flee their homes, the country’s civil defense agency said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
At least 74 people were injured and another 67 missing from the catastrophic flooding, civil defense said.<\/p>\n
The toll 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The Guaiba River, which flows through the city, is at a historic high of 5.04 meters, well above the 4.76 meters that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In many places, long lines formed as people tried to board buses, although bus services to and from the city center were canceled.<\/p>\n
The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Joao Guilherme, a 23-year-old salesman, found his way to safety in the state capital — but without his cellphone.<\/p>\n
“I have no communication with anybody, I’m very shaken,” he said.<\/p>\n
The speed of the rising waters unnerved Greta Bittencourt, 32, a professional poker player.<\/p>\n
“It’s terrifying because we saw the water rise in an absurd way, it rose at a very high speed,” Bittencourt said.<\/p>\n
‘Going to be much worse’<\/strong><\/p>\nWith 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!”<\/p>\n
He urged people to ration water, after four of the city’s six treatment plants had to be closed.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Residential areas were underwater as far as the eye could see, with roads destroyed and bridges swept away by powerful currents.<\/p>\n
Rescuers faced a colossal task, with entire towns inaccessible.<\/p>\n
At least 300 municipalities have suffered storm damage in Rio Grande do Sul since Monday, according to local officials.<\/p>\n
‘Disastrous cocktail’<\/strong><\/p>\nRoughly a third of the displaced have been brought to shelters set up in sports centers, schools and other facilities.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Lula, who visited the region Thursday, blamed the disaster on climate change.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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