Floods in Brazil drive thousands of people from their homes

“When I left for work on Monday, I was still able to get through the flooded street with my car. By noon, the army was rescuing people with a truck,” said Magda Moura, a resident of Porto Alegre.

That was the day the floods that devastated parts of southern Brazil closed off the building where she lived.

“By Wednesday the water had reached a height of 1.7 meters,” she recalls.

The 45-year-old physiotherapist is one of 408,100 people displaced by flooding caused by heavy rains in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.

At least 116 people have been killed across the state and with many towns still cut off by floodwaters, hopes of finding the more than 140 people still missing are dwindling.

Much of the state capital, Porto Alegre, has been plunged into darkness by the flooding, which has damaged energy and water treatment plants, also leaving most residents without drinking water.

Magda, 45, and her husband, 49-year-old Angelo Tarouco, spent two days rescuing neighbors cut off by the floodwaters that surrounded their high-rise buildings.

“Of all the residents of the towers, only a young couple remained on the site,” she says.

The couple told her they had enough supplies for a week, but because food and water are scarce in the city, she can’t help but worry about it.

Sheltered in a church, Roselaine da Silva cries as she remembers the two cats still trapped on the roof of her family’s flooded house

About 70,000 people live in temporary shelters. Roselaine da Silva is one of them. She lives in an evangelical church with her three children, one of whom has autism. Their two dogs are with them, but she says she has had to leave her two cats behind in her flooded Sarandi neighborhood.

“I didn’t know the water would take over like that,” she says, her voice choked with emotion. “I cried so much and blamed myself for leaving them in what I thought was a safe place.”

In her makeshift bedroom at the church, Roselaine — surrounded by donated clothing and other displaced families — says she has found some comfort in the support of strangers who have opened their doors to those in need.

In the city’s northern zone, the evangelical church has become a lifeline for dozens of families like Roselaine’s, huddled in the hallways.

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They too have lost everything due to the floods, their houses have been flooded and their belongings have been destroyed.

Pastor Dari Pereira, overwhelmed by the influx of displaced people, says he is doing his best to meet everyone’s needs.

“We provide four meals a day, hot showers and medical and psychological help,” he explains, tired but determined. “But demand continues to grow and we ran out of space. We now have to move people to other shelters.”