PORTO ALEGRE: Authorities were racing against time on Sunday to rescue people from raging floods and mudslides that have killed more than 50 and forced nearly 70,000 to flee their homes in southern Brazil. Viewed from the air, Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul state, is completely flooded, with streets waterlogged and the roofs of some houses barely visible.
The Guaiba River, which flows through the city of 1.4 million people, reached a record high level of 5.09 metres, according to the local municipality, well above the historic peak of 4.76 metres that had stood as a record since devastating 1941 floods.
The water was still advancing into economically important Porto Alegre and around a hundred other localities, with increasingly dramatic consequences.
In addition to some 70,000 residents forced from their homes, Brazil's civil defence agency also said more than a million people lacked access to potable water amid the flooding, describing the damage as incalculable.
The agency put the death toll at 55, although that did not include two people killed in an explosion at a flooded gas station in Porto Alegre that was witnessed by a journalist. At least 74 people are also missing, it said.
Rosana Custodio, a 37-year-old nurse, fled her flooded Porto Alegre home with her husband and three children. "During the night on Thursday the waters began to rise very quickly," she said via a WhatsApp message. "In a hurry, we went out to look for a safer place. But we couldn't 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.
The rainfall eased on Saturday night but was expected to continue for the next 24-36 hours, with authorities warning of landslides.
Authorities scrambled to evacuate swamped neighbourhoods as rescue workers used four-wheel-drive vehicles -- and even jet skis -- to manoeuvrer through waist-deep water in search of the stranded.
The Porto Alegre international airport suspended all flights on Friday for an undetermined period. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva 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. — AFP
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