A recent rainstorm caused record flooding in southern Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul, affecting over 300 cities and resulting in the deaths of at least 78 people. The civil defense agency of the state announced on May 5 that two-thirds of the nearly 500 cities in the state were impacted by the storm, leading to landslides and infrastructure damage. The flooding caused traffic congestion, power outages, and left over a million people without access to clean water.
The storms and floods caused a hydroelectric dam near Bento Goncalves to collapse, resulting in 30 fatalities. Several other hydroelectric dams in the region are also at risk of breaking due to rising floodwaters. Cities in the Taquari river valley, such as Lajeodo and Estrela, were heavily flooded. Brazilian President Lula da Silva described this as one of the worst floods in Brazilian history, with unprecedented amounts of rain falling on the state.
According to the Brazilian Meteorological Agency, this flood surpassed the “cataclysm” of 1941. In some cities, water levels reached their highest point in nearly 150 years. The disaster left 78 people dead, 101 missing, and over 115,000 evacuated. Rescue efforts involved helicopters airlifting stranded families from rooftops and specialized teams using vehicles and jet skis to access landslides and flooded areas.
In Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, the Guaiba River overflowed, flooding streets and causing widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure