Southern Brazil was hit by the worst floods in more than 80 years. At least 39 people have died

SAO PAULO – Heavy rains in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul killed 39 people and left another 68 missing, the state civil protection agency said Friday, while record-breaking floods devastated cities and forced thousands to flee their homes.

It was the fourth environmental disaster of its kind in a year, following the floods in July, September and November 2023, which killed a total of 75 people.

According to the Brazilian Geological Survey, the nationwide flooding exceeded flooding observed during a historic flood in 1941. In some cities, water levels are at their highest since records began nearly 150 years ago, the agency said.

On Thursday, a dam at a hydroelectric power station between the towns of Bento Goncalves and Cotipora partially collapsed and entire towns in the Taquari river valley, such as Lajeado and Estrela, were completely submerged by water. In the town of Feliz, 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the state capital Porto Alegre, a swollen river swept away a bridge connecting it to the neighboring town of Linha Nova.

Operators reported power, communications and water outages across the state. According to civil protection, more than 24,000 people had to leave their homes.

Without internet, phone service or electricity, residents struggled to provide updates or information to relatives living in other states. Helicopters constantly flew over the cities while stranded families with children waited on rooftops for rescue.

Isolete Neumann, 58, lives in the town of Lajeado in the Taquari River Valley and told The Associated Press she has never experienced a scenario like the one she is experiencing now.

“People built barricades in front of hospitals made of sand and gravel. “It felt like a horror movie,” she said on the phone. Some people in her region were so desperate, she added, that they threw themselves into the water currents.

Neumann’s own neighborhood wasn’t flooded, but there is no running water and she hasn’t showered since Tuesday. She said she collects rainwater in a basin so she can cook. A clothing store she owns in the center of the city was flooded, she added.

“I don’t even know what it has to be like. There must be nothing left.

The downpour began on Monday and is expected to last at least until Saturday, Marcelo Seluchi, chief meteorologist at the National Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Warning, told Brazil’s public television channel on Friday.

On Thursday evening, Governor Eduardo Leite alerted the state’s population, known as gauchos, to the ongoing rains and flooding. It is expected that the situation in Porto Alegre will worsen, he said.

“As a human being, I am devastated inside, just like every gaucho,” he said. “But as governor, I am steadfast here and I guarantee that we will not waver. “We are doing everything with focus, attention, discipline and outrage to ensure that everything in our power is done.”

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva paid tribute to the flood victims at a news conference on Friday alongside Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Brasilia.

“Minister Fumio Kishida’s first words at our meeting were of solidarity with the people of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, victims of one of the largest floods we have ever experienced. “Never in the history of Brazil has there been so much rain in a single place,” Lula said.

Weather across South America is influenced by the El Niño climate phenomenon, a periodic, naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the equatorial Pacific region. In Brazil, El Niño has previously caused droughts in the north and heavy rains in the south.

This year the impact of El Niño has been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change.

Karina Lima, a 36-year-old scientist and doctoral candidate in climatology at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, told The Associated Press that the state lies in a region with certain characteristics that increase El Niño’s destructive potential.

“Models have long predicted that Rio Grande do Sul will continue to experience increases in average annual precipitation and extreme precipitation, resulting in more concentrated and heavy rainfall,” she said.