The death toll from the devastating floods that hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil, is over one hundred.
The bulletin issued by the Civil Protection also reports 136 people who are still missing, while more than 370 are injured.
According to updated data, the exceptional wave of bad weather has caused damage to almost 1.5 million people, bringing 425 out of 497 towns in the state to their knees. To date, 232 thousand people have been forced to leave their homes and tens of thousands have been hosted in emergency facilities made available by the authorities.
Among the cities affected is Porto Alegre, where the Guaiba river, which crosses the metropolis, suffered a historic flood, which caused the water level to reach up to 5.30 metres. Several neighborhoods have been evacuated, with civil protection and volunteers continuing to travel the flooded streets on small boats to rescue residents still trapped and to convince those who refuse to leave their homes for fear of theft and looting to do so.
(Unioneonline/lf)
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