Brasilia: A total of 116 cities in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia were flooded on Tuesday due to heavy rain, triggering a state of emergency. Since the end of November, there has been a flood-like situation in the area. Cities in at least five other states in Brazil’s north and southeast have also been flooded in recent days. More than 470,000 people have been affected by floods in Bahia.
Homes and business establishments were flooded in at least 50 cities and people were forced to leave their belongings. According to official figures of the state government, 34,163 people have been rendered homeless and around 43,000 have been displaced. A total of 21 people have died and 358 have been injured due to the floods since the beginning of the month. According to the website of the government agency ‘National Center for Monitoring and Alerts of Natural Disasters’, Bahia has recorded the most rain in the last 32 years.
Southern Bahia received more than five times the normal amount at this time of year. Bahia’s governor, Rui Costa, compared the situation to a “bombing” in an interview on local radio stations on Tuesday morning. Coronavirus vaccines were destroyed in floods in some cities, “some municipal health offices and drug depots have been completely submerged,” he said. Bahia’s civil defense superintendent, Colonel Miguel Filho, said flood-like conditions were still in place and the city was isolated and the rain continued. “Our first response is to help the people, then to provide shelter, humanitarian aid, bed sheets, blankets, food to take care of people in shelters,” he said.
At least five dams in Bahia are in danger of collapsing, he said. The government’s science ministry said in a statement last week that above-average rainfall is caused by the atmospheric phenomenon La Nia, which increases rainfall in some regions of Brazil, including Bahia. Carlos Nobre, a leading climatologist, said that the current situation in Bahia is due to global warming.
