Residents were advised to leave the region and climb to places at least six meters above river levels. The information was given by vice-governor Gabriel Souza in a video published on social media. The right abutment, one of the sides on which the dam is supported, was broken, and the expectation is that the water flow will cause the total failure, he said.
The Department of Environment and Infrastructure says it monitors the structures of 13 other dams that are in a state of alert. Five of them are already in the process of being evacuated: Santa Lúcia, in Putinga; São Miguel do Buriti, in Bento Gonçalves; Belo Monte, in Eldorado do Sul; Dal Bó, in Caxias do Sul; and New Estate of Aldo Malta Dihl, in Glorinha.
Guaíba River, in Porto Alegre, should reach the historic mark of 1941
The forecast is that the level of the Guaíba River will rise and reach five meters in the capital. The governor declared that Guaíba had already reached 3.36 meters on Thursday night. In 1941, when a historic flood flooded part of the center of Porto Alegre, the river reached 4.76 meters.
After 1941, the three meter limit had only been exceeded on three occasions: in September 1967 (3.11 meters), September 2023 (3.18 meters) and November 2023 (3.46 meters).
Experts and authorities point out that the level of Guaíba is rising rapidly. The expectation is that it will reach 4 meters in the early hours of this Friday. “It’s rising 8 cm per hour,” said Leite. Guaíba receives water from different river basins affected by storms, such as Taquari and Caí.
