Porto Alegre: The rain may have eased, but flooding continues to hit southern Brazil, with hundreds of municipalities devastated by fears that food and drinking water will soon run out.
At least 85 people have been killed and more than 150,000 displaced by floods and landslides in the state of Rio Grande do Sul since the unprecedented floods began last week.
The search continues for 134 people missing in the devastation that left 339 injured.
The disaster attributed by experts and the government to climate change, the governor of the state, Eduardo Leite, said Sunday.
In total, 385 cities, towns and villages have been affected, many of them isolated from the rest of the world – without running water, electricity or the means to call for help.
Porto Alegre, the capital of the country of 1.4 million people, was left with many neighborhoods under water as the sun set on Monday.
Neykir Karmo, a 62-year-old resident of the Floresta neighborhood, told AFP: “Last night the water came to the corner and calmed down. Today we woke up outside my house and it was dark.”
“We don’t know how high it is,” he said.
The Guaiba River, which flows through the mega-city of tall buildings and wide streets, reached a record high of 5.3 meters (17.4 feet) on Sunday – higher than the historic height of 4.76 meters set by the flood which was terrible in 1941.
By Monday morning, the level had dropped slightly to 5.27 meters.
Porto Alegre, the wider city and part of the valley’s population will be “uninhabitable for weeks to months,” the MetSul weather service said on its website.
In some areas, a third of the average annual rainfall is said to fall in a matter of days.
“This scenario is complicated because the weather conditions are not going to be good today. Greater Porto Alegre and the valley are likely to experience more rain on Wednesday due to flooding,” said MetSul.
