The torrential rains affecting southern Brazil, which have caused unprecedented flooding over the last week in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, have already claimed more than 50 lives. The most recent report, released this Sunday by G1, points to the existence of 55 confirmed fatalities and seven under investigation.

There are still records of 74 missing and 107 injured. Around 82,500 people had to be removed from their homes, 13,300 were taken to shelters and another 69,200 were left homeless but received support in the homes of family and friends. With the latest report indicating at least 55 deaths, these torrential rains are already deadlier than the last ones that hit Rio Grande do Sul hard, killing 54 people in September last year.

The floods led local authorities to block all access to the historic city center. Asking the population residing in the region to move to safe places, the city of Porto Alegre announced that the Santa Marta Health Center, located in the historic center, closed due to the flooding of the Guaíba, with furniture and computer equipment being removed. from the ground floor to the upper floors of the building. Four other health units in the central region of the city were also closed.

The volume of water is so large that the Secretariat of Environment and Infrastructure of Rio Grande do Sul reported that the hydrometeorological station installed in Cais Mauá, in Porto Alegre, had reading problems during the early hours of this Saturday. Technicians from the Department of Water Resources and Sanitation have been, together with Civil Defense, checking the water level “in situ.”

According to the local press, the Guaíba River, which passes through Porto Alegre, has an elevation of around four and a half meters and is close to the historical record recorded in 1941, when the river’s flood reached 4.76 meters.

The storms that have hit southern Brazil led Pope Francis to dedicate his prayer this Sunday to the people: “May the Lord welcome the dead and give comfort to their families and to all those who had to leave their homes,” he said. pontiff.

Porto Chamber launches campaign to help the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre

The Porto City Council will launch a support and fundraising campaign for Porto Alegre. To Lusa, a source from the municipality clarified that it intends to “stand in solidarity” with the northeastern city.

According to the mayor of Porto, the independent Rui Moreira, the floods that are hitting the Brazilian State “should deserve concern.” “By calling the perfect of Porto Alegre, Sebastião Melo, to express the solidarity of the city of Porto, he asked me to publicize the support and fundraising campaign,” he says, quoted in a statement, appealing to everyone to help to “brother people”.

The storms hitting Brazil have destroyed roads, bridges, caused landslides and flooding since last Tuesday. The southernmost state of Brazil has been greatly affected by climate change. After suffering problems with a severe drought due to the La Niña phenomenon, last year the region began to be affected by El Niño and recorded four climate disasters caused by cyclones and extratropical storms in less than 12 months.

Rio Grande do Sul, with a population of 11 million people, has been repeatedly affected in the last year by the El Niño climate phenomenon, which causes heavy rains in the south of the country and droughts in the north and northeast of the country.