Earth Science News
SHAKE AND BLOW
'We're leaving': Brazilians pack up after repeat floods
'We're leaving': Brazilians pack up after repeat floods
By Anna PELEGRI
Roca Sales, Brazil (AFP) May 28, 2024

Fabiana Alves sifts through her mud-caked belongings while her partner loads up the car.

After three floods in eight months, the couple has had enough and is leaving the Brazilian riverside town of Roca Sales for good.

"We're leaving because ... I'm terrified. Any cloud, water, or rain and we think another flood is coming. We can't live like this anymore," the 50-year-old told AFP.

The wealthy town of 12,000 residents was one of the hardest hit by historic flooding in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul, parts of which are still under water one month after rivers first burst their banks.

At least 170 people have died, dozens are missing and more than 600,000 have been displaced by flooding, which experts attribute to climate change exacerbated by the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Ruined buildings and empty stores abound in the center of Roca Sales. Supermarkets have yet to re-open since river waters crashed through the town.

Residents of the town, which faces the Taquari River, used to expect a flood once every decade or so. Now, they hit so often that there is barely time to recover.

Experts widely agree that global warming makes extreme weather events more frequent and more intense.

"We are rebuilding for the third time. People no longer have resources," Roca Sales mayor Amilton Fontana told AFP.

"The people here are very hardworking, very resilient, but really, these three floods have shaken not only the physical infrastructure but also people's mental resilience."

- Lost memories -

Fontana wants to move the center of town three kilometers (1.86 miles) from its current location so that residents can "start a new life in a safe place."

But many, like Fabiana Alves, no longer see the attraction of the once-prosperous town, surrounded by soybean and cornfields, and with a thriving meat industry.

The day after the latest flood hit, Alves resigned from her job at a meat company and plans to move with her 10-year-old daughter and partner to a region north of state capital Porto Alegre, 130 kilometers away.

Alves has barely anything left to take with her. On one side of her rental home her destroyed furniture is piled up, her sofa barely recognizable under the mud.

"I also lost my memories, photos of my grandparents, my daughter's clothes that I kept... They are material things, but I will never get them back," she said.

On the main street of Roca Sales, downcast residents trudge towards a food donation point.

"There is only one reality: everyone is suffering," said Gelson Moraes Lopes, a 48-year-old waiter who receives several hot plates of pasta from a volunteer.

Originally from the neighboring state of Parana, Lopes and his wife chose to move to Roca Sales, attracted by its high quality of life.

The town boasts a per capita income 16 percent higher that the Brazilian average of almost $10,000, according to official data from 2021.

Moraes Lopes arrived days before the first flood, in September 2023. Everything he moved with was lost.

In November, "fate returned" with another deluge, and now, he ended up with a meter of mud filling his apartment.

This was the last straw.

"We're going back to Parana," he told AFP.

- No choice but to stay -

Jania Delay Silva, 60, and her husband, Joao Carlos Vargas, 61, have no choice but to stay.

"We can't survive any other way," said Delay Silva, wiping away tears.

The retired couple was living on the outskirts of Roca Sales when their house was destroyed in the November floods.

They had started building a new one at a higher point, which seemed safer, next to their agricultural fields.

But when the flood hit, they had to leave the unfinished property.

For now they live in a house lent to them by relatives, "with no door or electricity," said Delay Silva.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) on Friday described the situation in Rio Grande do Sul as "very worrying" and warned of the need to help the population prepare for and recover from extreme climate events.

Related Links
Bringing Order To A World Of Disasters
When the Earth Quakes
A world of storm and tempest

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
SHAKE AND BLOW
Armenia floods kill two, hundreds evacuated
Yerevan (AFP) May 26, 2024
Floods in northern Armenia killed at least two people as they destroyed key roads and bridges, forcing some 200 to evacuate, officials said on Sunday. Floods caused by heavy rain in the northern Lori region have left two people dead and two more missing, the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructures, Gnel Sanosyan, told journalists. The country's interior ministry said earlier that 232 people were evacuated from their homes. Several bridges and parts of a strategic highway l ... read more

SHAKE AND BLOW
UN chief says 'obscene' that small islands pay climate consequences

Xi says China 'deeply pained' by 'severe' Gaza situation

Tribal violence, rain and mosquitoes: making sense of the PNG landslide

Pier damage forces suspension of US aid shipments to Gaza: Pentagon

SHAKE AND BLOW
Cool by design 3D printing

Musk plans largest-ever supercomputer for xAI startup: report

Virginia Tech Engineers Lower Leidenfrost Effect Temperature

Google to invest $2 bn in Malaysia: government

SHAKE AND BLOW
Panama's first climate change displaced bid their island farewell

Texas team creates first global map of seafloor biodiversity activity

Taiwan's oyster farmers on frontline of China war games

Europe's water contamined by PFAS chemical: NGOs

SHAKE AND BLOW
Successful satellite launch will let NASA measure polar heat loss

For sale: unique piece of land in strategic Arctic archipelago

Climate change key driver of record-low Antarctic sea ice: study

For sale: unique piece of land in strategic Arctic archipelago

SHAKE AND BLOW
China lifts trade bans on Australian beef with 'immediate effect'

Rainy spring weather plagues Bordeaux vines with mildew

Simple food swaps could cut greenhouse gas emissions by a quarter

Brazil farmer who lost everything to floods recalls water's fury

SHAKE AND BLOW
Floating walkways a lifeline for Brazilians after floods

Lava spews again from volcanic eruption in Iceland

Deadly Bangladesh cyclone one of longest seen

12 Indians killed in quarry collapse after cyclone rains

SHAKE AND BLOW
Jailed Burkina army officer abducted day after release

Rights group wants probe into post-coup 'killings' in DR Congo

Mali army says kills 'large number' of jihadists

Nigeria jihadists kill around 30 in reprisal attacks

SHAKE AND BLOW
JK Rowling says regrets not speaking out sooner on trans issues

Record low level of Hong Kong's young adults want children: survey

Can we rid artificial intelligence of bias?

Amazonian chief at UN to combat traditional knowledge piracy

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.