PORTO ALEGRE – Teams in flood-ravaged southern Brazil scrambled on May 7 to deliver humanitarian aid to Porto Alegre and other inundated municipalities, where queues formed for drinking water as forecasters warned of more downpours.

The worst natural calamity ever to hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul has claimed at least 95 lives, with 372 people reported injured and 131 still missing, according to the civil defence force that handles disaster relief.

“The tolls continue to rise and unfortunately we anticipate that they are still very inaccurate because the emergency is continuing to develop,” said Governor Eduardo Leite.

Nearly 400 municipalities have been hit, including state capital Porto Alegre, with more than 160,000 people forced to leave their homes as streets transformed into rivers after days of record-breaking rain.

Porto Alegre is home to some 1.4 million people and the larger metropolitan area has more than double that number.

The state’s Guaiba River, which runs through Porto Alegre, remained at historic high levels on May 7, and officials said five dams were at risk of rupturing.

For tens of thousands of people stranded by impassable roads, collapsed bridges and flooded homes in Rio Grande do Sul, “the most urgent demand is (drinking) water”, said civil defence official Sabrina Ribas.

Helicopters were buzzing overhead on May 7, delivering water and food to communities most in need, while work continued on restoring road access.

In Alvorada, a municipality east of Porto Alegre, people queued with buckets and plastic bottles, collecting drinking water from the few taps still working.

Most shops have run out of bottled water.

“This is horrible. We have children,” said Ms Gabriela Almeida, 27, who was queuing at a public tap with a one-year-old child in her arms.

Individuals and businesses with wells were doing what they could to help.

Alvorada resident Benildo Carvalho, 48, was one of them – filling neighbors’ bottles with a hose as a line of people formed outside his house.

“It’s a matter of solidarity,” he told AFP. “You cannot deny people water.”

Only two of Porto Alegre’s six water treatment plants were functioning, the mayor’s office said, and hospitals and shelters were being supplied by water tankers.

The Brazilian Navy said it would send its vessel Atlantic – Latin America’s largest – to Rio Grande do Sul on May 8 with two mobile water treatment stations.

‘Changed the map’

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said more emergency funds would be freed up on May 7, vowing there would be “no lack of resources to meet the needs of Rio Grande do Sul”.

Some 15,000 soldiers, firefighters, police officers and volunteers were hard at work in planes and boats, even jet skis, to rescue those trapped and transport aid.

Brazil’s neighbours Uruguay and Argentina have sent rescue equipment and trained personnel.

Celebrities were also chipping in, with footballer Neymar sending a plane with donations. He said on Instagram he was “praying for everything to return to normal”.

Even as the calamity showed no signs of abating, weather forecasts suggested it could still get worse.

The Inmet meteorological institute warned of possible storms in the south of Rio Grande do Sul until May 8, followed by rainfall in the centre and north, which it said would imperil rescue efforts.

According to weather agency MetSul, the flooding has “changed the map of the metropolitan region” of Porto Alegre.

Mr Lula warned that if harvests were delayed by the flooding in this deeply agricultural region, the country would have to import rice and beans.

Police, meanwhile, said there had been reports of evacuated homes being looted and some residents, afraid of such intrusions, were refusing to move to shelters. AFP