On Thursday (2), I received a photo from my sister that went viral on social media. In it, Havan de Lajeado was covered by water and part of the bridge that is a few meters from the store was partially submerged.
Two days later the crash came. I was on duty and heard that my aunt Rose had lost everything. She lives in the Mathias Velho neighborhood, in Canoas, in the metropolitan region of Porto Alegre. The city is crossed by BR-116 and the train line – which runs parallel to the highway – and most of the affected area is made up of houses or popular buildings.
“I just left with a blanket, a change of clothes and documents”, said my aunt, via voice message. I cringed.
“The whole neighborhood is under water, we lost everything”, said my cousin, Rose’s son. The two live in houses close to each other, but not far from Rio dos Sinos. However, there was a dike that contained the advance of the water. Despite the damage, they were fine.
On Monday (6), I went by car to Porto Alegre to follow the tragedy more closely. I went without knowing what the roads would be like. On the way, I came across National Force vehicles, which were heading to the State, sent to assist in the rescues. Passing along the coast, in the cities of Torres and Capão da Canoa, I saw an atypical movement of “outsiders”, who responded to Mayor Sebastião Melo’s request to leave the capital of Rio Grande do Sul.
But it was only on the way from Capão da Canoa to Porto Alegre – on the RS-040 – that the situation became clear. Halfway through, I stopped at a restaurant in Capivari do Sul, around 9:30 pm. The place was packed, with all the tables full and queues to go to the bathroom. There I spoke with people from Santa Catarina from Florianópolis who were going to the capital of Rio Grande do Sul to help with the rescues. The group of friends even took a boat.
