Army rescues man clinging to fence in flood-ravaged Brazil
STORY: :: Soldiers rescue a man clinging to a
fence during flooding in southern Brazil
:: May 8, 2024
:: Porto Alegre, Brazil
:: Pedro Dias de Oliveira
"When I started to get scared I tried to stay calm because I knew that at that moment, when I couldn't stand up because of the depth, if I got desperate it would be worse. Then I started to think about calming down and breathing. Then I started to calculate that I had to reach a certain point to be safe."
:: Over 100 people have died in the floods
The death toll from severe flooding in southern Brazil has risen to 107, civil defense authorities said on Thursday (May 9), as rescue operations continued and authorities began to see the cost of recovering from the devastation in the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
At least 136 people are still missing and more than 165,000 have been displaced from flooded homes and rescued by boats and helicopters.
More rains are forecast in the coming days, raising fears that water levels will rise further in the inundated state capital of Porto Alegre and nearby town where streets have turned into rivers.
