The heavy rains that hit Rio Grande do Sul throughout this week left, in addition to 55 confirmed deaths as of Saturday morning (4), thousands of people without basic services. According to the latest Civil Defense update, a total of 860,952 households were without water supply across the state.
This number, equivalent to 14% of the properties served by the company Corsan, is almost double compared to those that were out of supply on Friday afternoon (3), according to Civil Defense bulletins. In total, 281 municipalities were affected in some way, according to the Rio Grande do Sul government.
Furthermore, on Saturday morning there were 350,000 properties without electricity. According to energy distributor RGE Sul, responsible for 296 thousand addresses that are without electricity, 7.6% of its customers were affected. CEEE Equatorial, which accounts for 54 thousand points without electricity, reported that 2.8% of the homes it serves were affected
Classes were suspended in all 2,338 schools in the state network, impacting almost 200,000 students. At least 224 schools had their structures damaged.
With 8,296 homeless people across the state, there are 30 state schools serving as housing.
Several regions were also affected by the interruption of telephone services. The operator TIM reported that 63 municipalities were without telephone and internet services. The problem affected Vivo customers in 46 cities, and Claro in 19 municipalities.
Blockades affect 68 roads
The rains also caused damage to state highways and changes in traffic. This Saturday (4), there were 128 sections blocked totally or partially on 68 roads, according to the state government.
On at least 25 highways, the interruptions occurred because bridges collapsed, were damaged or had to be closed for safety reasons due to the height of the rivers. Other sections were submerged or hit by landslides.
Situation in RS after the rains
- 55 deaths
- 67 missing
- 74 injured
- 377,497 people affected
- 350 thousand properties without energy
- 860,952 properties without water
- Classes suspended in 2,338 state schools
According to Civil Defense, the river receives a large amount of water due to the heavy rains that hit the state and is exceeding, in an extraordinary way, the flood quota.
During the early hours of Friday, the Guaíba River, in Porto Alegre, reached its highest level since 1941. The river reached 4.23 meters at the Mauá pier. The alert level for the historic center region is 2.5 meters, with 3 meters for flooding.
Among the consequences of the flood is the closure of the Municipal Guard base on the edge of Guaíba. The area will be patrolled preventively until normalization.
Civil Defense issued an evacuation alert for residents and workers in the historic center who are close to the streets Siqueira Campos, Sete de Setembro, Andradas and Avenida Júlio de Castilhos.
The streets are a commercial hub of Porto Alegre, with many popular stores, bars and restaurants, in addition to concentrating most of the city’s bus departures towards the north zone and the surroundings of PUCRS, in the Partenon neighborhood. There are still many residential buildings in the region, especially in Andradas, whose residents are at risk of being left stranded and without basic services. As access to parts of the neighborhood is blocked by security agents, circulation is limited.
The rains devastated cities in Rio Grande do Sul and also reached Santa Catarina and Paraná, causing another three deaths.
This Saturday, the forecast is that the rain should continue, according to Inmet (National Institute of Meteorology). According to the federal agency, the total volume of rain can reach 100 mm in 24 hours, with winds of up to 100 km/h.
