Flood-hit towns in South Brazil take stock of damage, rethink future

In just eight months, three historic floods have devastated entire towns in the Vale do Taquari region, which encompasses dozens of municipalities in the central region of Rio Grande do Sul state, South Brazil, where family farming had a strong presence and agriculture was a thriving industry.

The scene after the most recent catastrophe resembles a war zone, with bridges destroyed, houses wrecked, rubble and mud piling up everywhere, and the people left distraught. The tragedy began late in April, with river floods observed in virtually all of the state’s municipalities.

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On Sunday (May 19), Agência Brasil visited locations where there are still blockades—towns like Roca Sales and Arroio do Meio, which are among the most heavily devastated. Until a week ago, major highways reaching the capital had still not been fully cleared.

One of the videos that spread online during the tragic days shows the highway bridge over the Taquari river, at the entrance to the town of Lajeado, almost completely covered in water and the river overflowing its banks, covering factories and stores, including a Havan chain outlet and its iconic replica of the Statue of Liberty.

Two weeks later, the marks of destruction are still obvious, with the concrete parapet of the bridge cluttered with branches and the ravines on the river banks littered with uprooted trees. A glass factory by the bridge has announced on social media it will relocate after being ruined by the current.

Photo coverage by Agência Brasil:

Further north of Lajeado, on the highway bordering the Taquari, most of the houses in the rural area stand in ruins. “May’s flood was much higher than we’d seen in the past. In September, it was 2.2 meters above the highest flood in history, but now, early in the month, it has exceeded the September flood by another two meters. The river rose 24 meters above its normal level,” says Sandro Herrmann, mayor of Colinas, a small town on the banks of the river that gives the valley its name. In this town alone, more than 300 houses and 1,400 people were directly affected—nearly 60 percent of its 2,500 residents.

“These floods have shown that the existing master plan is not enough. Now, after the new [flood] levels, the town will have to reorganize itself. It’s not just the riverside population that lives in the flood zones, but also those on the hillsides, where 30 families suffered from landslides,” he reported.

Adaptation and change

Not far from there, another destruction site continues to cause inconvenience to residents and workers. Carried away by the current of the Forqueta river, a tributary of the Taquari, the bridge between Lajeado and Arroio do Meio has become a chunk of concrete slumped onto riverbank. On May 15, it was closed off and a pedestrian-only crossing was set up by an army battalion.

“I work in Arroio do Meio, but I come here to get across because, as we no longer have access, no more goods come [to Arroio do Meio,] so we cross to get supplies and come back,” said saleswoman Simone Feil.

Hundreds of workers who live in one town and work in the other have to take transport to the river and cross the improvised footbridge—no more than a wooden walkway supported by a row of boats.

The flow of people on the platform is hectic. No official figures are available, but in just under an hour hundreds of locals were seen making their way across. The traffic is organized by army soldiers, and wearing life jackets is mandatory.

Since the footbridge is a narrow and one-way passage, the groups on each bank are only allowed to go alternately. Elderly people, people with reduced mobility, and children find the crossing even more challenging, as it requires descending a steep, slippery ravine soaked by the rain.

Young student Letícia Elegeda was one of the people going over the footbridge from Arroio do Meio, carrying two large suitcases, a backpack, and a box. “I decided to leave town. I’m just 20 years old, and the town is utterly lost. All small businesses [have been affected]. The low-lying neighborhoods by the river no longer exist,” she said, referring to her hometown.

Elegeda says that, in the flood of September last year—the worst in history, until now—she and her parents were forced to move to a higher district for protection, but the river reached them again. It happened quickly. Elegeda and her parents only had a few hours to gather their clothes and some pieces of work equipment and camp outside a neighbor’s house.

“We thought it wasn’t going to take our whole house, but in the end it did, so we went upstairs. Then, around 5 am, everyone woke up to see the water had come all the way to the yard next door to us, so we went to other neighbors further up the street. We were getting stranded in our own neighborhood. Thankfully, the river stopped rising the next day, but we were scared and took shelter for a few days in a nursery under construction. It was a nightmare,” she recounted. Elegeda said she was now going to live in the neighboring Venâncio Aires, another town in Vale do Taquari, but far away from the floods.

Last Saturday (18), on a visit to Vale do Taquari, Rio Grande do Sul state Governor Eduardo Leite announced the construction of a new bridge between Lajeado and Arroio do Meio, which is expected to cost around BRL 14 million and take more than 180 days to build. In the meantime, a second pedestrian footbridge will have to be installed to ensure simultaneous crossings.

Economic concern

Hundreds of people cross the Forqueta river every day through floating footbridge that connects Lajeado to Arroio do Meio – Rafa Neddermeyer/Agência Brasil

Student Leonardo Friedrich said the floods left a trail of destruction in his hometown Arroio do Meio, adding that he even avoids watching the videos circulating online.

“The accounts that come to us say there’s nothing left. I’m living in Lajeado now, but the videos I’ve watched the least were those recorded in Arroio do Meio. Seeing everything in ruins in a place you’re well familiar with is heart-rending. I have friends who’ve been affected in all towns nearby, and they all say the same thing: in several places where the water had never reached, this time the water went all the way up to the roof.”

The main cause for concern now is the economic future of the region. “We wonder how businesses are going to survive. They’re going to have to relocate whole neighborhoods. I can’t say whether the downtown area of Arroio do Meio will be able to stay there any longer, for instance.”

“There’s no one who isn’t shaken. If your location didn’t get flooded, you’re going to be disrupted in other ways. We see people suffering,” said physical therapist Mariana Cásper, Friedrich’s girlfriend. “Housing, basic sanitation… It’s hard to think of what to work on first. It’s a really complex matter,” she added.

In the view of Colinas Mayor Sandro Hermann, the economic future of his town is uncertain, since local businesses and industries were still recovering from the September floods.

“We don’t know how businesses are going to cope, because they’ve been hit twice, some three times, by floods, and they’ve lost all their stock, all their equipment, and we still haven’t managed to tackle the issue of financing for businesses affected by the September flood. It’s been nine months, so it’s difficult for entrepreneurs to find the strength to get their industry, commerce, or service back on track,” Herrmann stated.

He hopes that support will arrive more quickly this time. Across the state, around 700 thousand micro and small businesses were directly affected by the floods. In the agricultural area of Vale do Taquari, many farms have been completely abandoned. “People don’t want to go back anymore; this flood has shattered people’s hearts,” the mayor said.

Sticking together

In the small town of Colinas, the Evangelical Lutheran Church has become a distribution center for food, clothes, cleaning materials, blankets, mattresses, and water. The supplies come from Taió, in the neighboring Santa Catarina state. All locals have to do is take what they need. Some of the donations come from the Leopoldo Jacobsen school, also in Santa Catarina, and are directed at children.

The president of the Corvos e Colina Lutheran community is Marcos Roberto, who had his own farm hit by the flood. “I managed to save my animals; I spent the whole night on my boat. We had to live in the church for five days,” he recounted.

*Rádio Nacional reporter Gabriel Brum contributed to this article.