Over 90 people have died and 131 are missing after widespread flooding in Brazil.
The city of Porto Alegre’s 1.3 million inhabitants are trapped by the bodies of water and over 200,000 people are believed to have been left homeless.
– We have never seen anything like this, says resident Suzan.
Southern Brazil is currently experiencing the region’s worst floods ever.
Almost one and a half million people are affected by the downpours that began last week and have continued almost non-stop since then.
80 percent of the residents of the city of Porto Alegre, capital of the hard-hit region of Rio Grande do Sul, lack access to drinking water.
Criminal gangs make it difficult
The city’s mayor has ordered the rationing of drinking water and sent out tankers. The elderly and sick are evacuated as far as possible, but the work of the rescue and aid workers is made more difficult by criminal gangs who, among other things, steal their boats.
– They loot houses and steal jet skis. It is reprehensible and must be condemned, according to a spokesperson for the president BBC.
Authorities in the city have urged anyone who owns “any type of boat” to lend them to the rescue service.
Horse stranded on roof
Over 200,000 people are believed to have been displaced by the torrential rains. Many of them try to leave the region on foot, but the water levels are so high that only the roofs of houses reach the surface in several places.
In a video filmed by a local television station, a horse can be seen stranded on a roof in the region.
The AP news agency has spoken to residents who were sheltered on a hill in a so far spared area of Porto Alegre.
– I took my important documents, three shirts, underwear and my flip-flops. Everything else is gone, says Heitor da Silva, one of 300 people given a mattress and some food by volunteers at the temporary shelter.
Picking up new momentum for the weekend
The neighboring city of Eldorado do Sul is even harder hit. The city’s mayor, Ernani de Freitas, says that all of the city’s 35,000 or so residents must be evacuated.
– It will take at least a year to restore this, he told the AP after a military helicopter flew over and saw people getting around on surfboards.
The clouds are expected to lighten up somewhat during the day today but pick up new momentum for the weekend.