Brazil floods wreak historic devastation, with more rain coming

Catastrophic floods continue to paralyze the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, with four-fifths of the state — home to 11 million people — affected following torrential rainfall. And more rain is on the way, complicating recovery efforts.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 95 people had died, 131 were missing and 159,000 had been displaced, the state government said, while 1.5 million residents have been impacted in some way by the disaster.

Many roads around the state are impassable, hampering access to smaller towns and cities. Authorities are using aircraft to distribute food and medical supplies.

Water utility Corsan said one-fifth of its millions of customers in Rio Grande do Sul are without running water. Power and phone and internet services are down in dozens of municipalities.

Porto Alegre, the state’s capital and its largest city, was swamped by the overflow of Lake Guaíba, which surged to record levels more than 2 meters (about 6.6 feet) above its normal height. The city has ordered water rationing.

Porto Alegre’s Salgado Filho International Airport, which usually sees between 120 and 140 flights daily, has been closed since May 3. There is “no forecast of resumption of operations,” according to the company that runs the airport.

Because the floodwaters haven’t yet subsided, it’s impossible to assess the full impact of the flooding and the funds that will be needed for recovery and rebuilding, said Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has visited the state with members of his cabinet.

“The initial difficulty is that no mayor, nor the [state’s] governor, is aware of the damage that has been done,” he said Tuesday. The situation will only become clear “when the water goes down and we see what actually happened.”

Eduardo Leite, governor of Rio Grande do Sul, warned on Tuesday evening that more danger lies ahead. A mass of cold air is expected to bring new storms, he said. Temperatures are likely to plummet and heavy rain will return to parts of the state later in the week.

“It isn’t time to return home. The projection is that the rains can generate strong floods,” Leite said at a press conference.

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