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When I left for work on Monday, I could still get through the water-logged street with my car. By the afternoon, the army was rescuing people with a truck,” says Porto Alegre resident Magda Moura.
That was the day that the floods which have devastated parts of southern Brazil cut off the building she lived in.
“By Wednesday, the water had reached [a height of] 1.7m (5ft 6in),” she recalls.
The 45-year-old physiotherapist is one of 408,100 people who have been displaced by floods triggered by torrential rain in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.
At least 116 people have died across the state and, with many towns still cut off by the flood waters, hopes of finding the more than 140 people who are still missing are dwindling.
Much of the state capital, Porto Alegre, has been plunged into darkness by the flood, which has damaged power 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 neighbours cut off by the flood waters which surrounded their high-rise buildings.
“Of all the occupants of the towers, only a young couple remained on the premises,” she says.
She is staying in an evangelical church with her three children, one of whom has autism. Their two dogs are with them, but she says she’s had to leave her two cats behind in her flooded Sarandi neighbourhood.
“I didn’t know the water would take over like this,” she says, her voice choked with emotion. “I’ve cried so much, blaming myself for leaving them in what I thought was a safe place.”
In her makeshift bedroom in the church, Roselaine – surrounded by donated clothes 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 northern zone of the city, the evangelical church has become a lifeline for dozens of families like Roselaine’s huddled in the halls.
They too have lost everything to the floodwaters, their homes submerged, their possessions destroyed.
BBC
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