An official at the UN refugee agency stated on Tuesday that record floods in southern Brazil that killed over 170 people and left half a million homeless are a portent of worse disasters to come throughout the Americas due to climate change.
Due to the heavy rain and floods in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, around 389,000 people are still without a place to live. According to local officials, this is the biggest disaster to ever affect the area. According to scientists, the likelihood of floods increased twofold due to climate change.
Over the weekend, Andrew Harper, the UNHCR’s special advisor on climate action, visited a flooded district in Porto Alegre, the state capital, and described it as “a ghost town.”
It spent over forty days submerged. Not even rodents were scuttling around. In a Tuesday interview, Harper stated, “Everything had died.”
Residents have not returned to the area, whose streets remain clogged with waterlogged trash and debris, even after the flood levels abated. Numerous people, including refugees from Venezuela who had relocated to Porto Alegre, are still staying in shelters.
The UNHCR is assisting the local authorities in constructing makeshift homes.
Some severely affected districts’ residents may never return because they were evicted due to frequent floods, according to Harper. However, it won’t be known for years after the catastrophe how many will end up as so-called climate migrants.
Governments should be doing more to prepare for climate disasters, according to Harper, as the floods exceeded all local authorities’ predictions.
He suggested that governments should identify the neighborhoods of Porto Alegre where the most susceptible individuals to climate change reside and incorporate those residents into their climate strategies.
