Brazil mounts frantic rescue e‡ort as ‘ooding kills 75
Authorities in southern Brazil scrambled on Sunday to rescue people from raging ¦oods and mudslides that have killed at least 75 and forced more than 88,000 to ¦ee their homes.
All over Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul State, people stood on rooftops hoping to be rescued as others in canoes or small boats navigated streets that have become rivers.
Viewed from the air, Porto Alegre was completely ¦ooded, with streets under water and the roofs of some houses barely visible.
Civil defense o cials said at least 103 people were missing in the latest of a string of catastrophic weather events to hit the South American giant.
More than 3,000 soldiers, reghters and other crews worked frantically to save people stranded by the ¦oods over the past few days, in many cases without basics like running water or electricity.
“It looks like a scene out of a war, and after it is over it will require a post-war approach,” Rio Grande do Sul Governor Eduardo Leite said, ¦anked by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and several government Ministers.
Lula promised the government would provide all necessary resources for reconstruction.
Besides Porto Alegre, another 334 towns and villages have been hit by the ¦ooding, caused by torrential rain.
Field hospitals
Soldiers are setting up eld hospitals after hundreds of patients had to be evacuated from regular hospitals.
70% of Porto Alegre is without running water and much of the metropolitan area is under water, o cials said.
The Guaiba River, which ¦ows through the city of 1.4 million people, reached a record high level of 5.3 m, according to the local municipality, well above the historic peak of 4.76 m that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 ¦oods.
Rosana Custodio, a 37year-old nurse, ¦ed her ¦ooded Porto Alegre home with her husband and three children.
“During the night on Thursday the waters began to rise very quickly,” she said.
“In a hurry, we went out to look for a safer place. But we could not walk... My husband put our two little ones in a kayak and rowed with a bamboo. My son and I swam to the end of the street,” she said.
Her family was safe but “we have lost everything we had.”
‘It’s terrifying’
Authorities scrambled to evacuate swamped neighbourhoods as rescue workers used four-wheel-drive vehicles — and even jet skis — to manoeuvre through waist-deep water in search of the stranded.
Sunday will be a key day for the rescue eort, said Paulo Pimenta, a senior communications o cial under Lula.
Long lines formed as people tried to board buses in many places, although bus services to and from the city centre were cancelled.
The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all ¦ights on Friday for an undetermined period.
Its runways are under water.
Lula posted a video of a helicopter depositing a soldier atop a house, who then used a brick to pound a hole in the roof and rescue a baby wrapped in a blanket.
The speed of the rising waters unnerved many.
Leite said this was the worst natural disaster in the history of Rio Grande do Sul, which is home to agroindustrial production of soy, rice, wheat and corn.