Brazil storms spark floods and trigger hydroelectric dam to break down

Storms in Brazil have sparked floods and caused a hydroelectric dam to collapse, with at least 29 people dead and 60 missing.

Shocking images and video show people wading through chest-high muddy water and huge swathes of land submerged in the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the country’s south. 

The region has since declared a state of emergency with the death toll expected to rise and a desperate search underway for dozens of missing people among collapsed homes, bridges and roads. 

Storm damage has affected nearly 150 municipalities in the state, also injuring 36 people and displacing more than 10,000.

Part of the structure of the hydroelectric dam ’14 de Julho’ located between the town of Cotipora and the city of Bento Goncalves has also collapsed on Thursday, raising the level of water in the Taquari river. 

The downpour started on Monday and was expected to last through Friday. In some areas, such as valleys, mountain slopes and cities, more than six inches of rain fell in 24 hours, according to Brazil’s National Institute of Meteorology, known by the Portuguese acronym INMET, on Tuesday.

Governor Eduardo Leite said Rio Grande do Sul was dealing with ‘the worst disaster in [its] history’, and he added: ‘We are living a very critical moment in the state.’

‘With the deepest pain in my heart, I know it will be even more,’ the governor said of the death toll.

President Lula, who has blamed the torrent on climate change, arrived in the town of Santa Maria in the morning with a delegation of ministers and held a working meeting with Leite and other officials to coordinate rescue efforts, the government said.

The president promised ‘there will be no lack of human or material resources’ to ‘minimize the suffering this extreme event… is causing in the state.’

The federal government, he added, ‘will be 100 percent at the disposition’ of state officials.

Central authorities has already made available 12 aircraft, 45 vehicles and 12 boats as well as 626 soldiers to help clear roads, distribute food, water and mattresses, and set up shelters, a press statement said.

As the rains continued, forecasts warned the state’s main Guaiba River, which has already overflowed its banks in some areas, would reach an extraordinary level of three meters (9.8 feet) by Thursday and four meters the next day.

Entire communities in Rio Grande do Sul state have been completely cut off as persistent rains have destroyed bridges and blocked roads, and left towns without even telephone or internet services.

Rescuers and soldiers have been scrambling to free families trapped in their homes, many stuck on rooftops to escape rising waters.

‘I came here to help people, to get them out of the flooding because it is very dangerous. The current is very strong,’ said fisherman Guilverto Luiz, who was helping rescue efforts in Sao Sebastiaio do Cai, about 70 km from Porto Alegre, the state capital. 

‘I’ve never seen anything like this… it’s all under water,’ said Raul Metzel, a 52-year-old machine operator in the municipality of Capela de Santana.

Authorities have urged people to avoid areas along state highways due to a risk of mudslides, and those who live near rivers or on hillsides to evacuate.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without access to electricity and drinking water, while classes have been suspended state-wide.

On Wednesday, the state’s deputy governor, Gabriel Souza, said damages have been estimated at £16million. 

Mayor Sandra Backes of Sinimbu said the situation in her town was ‘a nightmare.’

‘Sinimbu is like a war zone, completely destroyed… All the stores, businesses, supermarkets – everything is devastated,’ she said in a video posted on Instagram.

Elsewhere, in Santa Cruz do Sul, lifeguards used boats to transport residents, many of them children, to safety.

The region’s rivers had already been swollen from previous storms.

Weather across South America is affected by the climate phenomenon El Nino, a periodic naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region.

In Brazil, El Nino has historically caused droughts in the north and intense rainfall in the south.

This year, the impacts of El Nino have been particularly dramatic, with a historic drought in the Amazon. Scientists say extreme weather is happening more frequently due to human-caused climate change.