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Brazil's floods smashed through barriers designed to keep them out,trapping water in for weeks - and exposing social woe
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/19/climate/brazil-floods-social-problems-intl/index.html(long article, many pics - excerpt doesn't do it justice)
Brazil’s floods smashed through barriers designed to keep them out, trapping water in for weeks — and exposing social woes
By Vasco Cotovio, CNN
9 minute read
Published 12:01 AM EDT, Sun May 19, 2024
Streets in the city center of Porto Alegre in Brazil on May 14, 2024, weeks after the floods first hit. Jefferson Bernardes/Getty Images
[...]
The picture is a little different in Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. It oozes a rich colonial history in its grand architecture and a sense of luxury in its large marinas. Landing pads for private helicopters are not an uncommon site.
Weeks of floods triggered by record-smashing rainfall have left parts of southern Brazil in disaster, also laying bare some of the country’s persistent social problems: inequality in the emerging economy is still rife; crime rates remain high; and local governance is often dogged by mismanagement and, sometimes, corruption.
[...]
The outdated dikes built decades ago to keep rivers and lakes from overflowing, are now, ironically, trapping the water in, keeping much of the state, including Canoas, inundated.
“The water came into this side of the barriers, now it’ll take a long time, maybe 45, 60 days to take it to the other side,” Canoas Mayor Jairo Jorge da Silva said in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster Globo last week. “We’ve got ourselves a big pool.”
[...]
By Vasco Cotovio, CNN
9 minute read
Published 12:01 AM EDT, Sun May 19, 2024
Streets in the city center of Porto Alegre in Brazil on May 14, 2024, weeks after the floods first hit. Jefferson Bernardes/Getty Images
[...]
The picture is a little different in Porto Alegre, the state capital of Rio Grande do Sul. It oozes a rich colonial history in its grand architecture and a sense of luxury in its large marinas. Landing pads for private helicopters are not an uncommon site.
Weeks of floods triggered by record-smashing rainfall have left parts of southern Brazil in disaster, also laying bare some of the country’s persistent social problems: inequality in the emerging economy is still rife; crime rates remain high; and local governance is often dogged by mismanagement and, sometimes, corruption.
[...]
The outdated dikes built decades ago to keep rivers and lakes from overflowing, are now, ironically, trapping the water in, keeping much of the state, including Canoas, inundated.
“The water came into this side of the barriers, now it’ll take a long time, maybe 45, 60 days to take it to the other side,” Canoas Mayor Jairo Jorge da Silva said in an interview with Brazilian broadcaster Globo last week. “We’ve got ourselves a big pool.”
[...]