Lula Visits Southern Brazil With Dozens Missing in Floods
- At least 75 people have died and neighborhoods are under water
- Rio Grande do Sul flooding is the country’s worst in 80 years
Residents walk through floodwater following heavy rains in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, on May 6.
Photographer: Carlos Macedo/BloombergBrazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and key cabinet members arrived Sunday in the country’s south where record-breaking floods have shut-down a main airport and submerged neighborhoods, leaving dozens dead and many others missing.
Heavy rains over the state of Rio Grande do Sul caused main rivers to overflow, straining damps and displacing more than 88,000 people in more than 330 municipalities. At least 75 have died and 103 are missing, according to the latest official report. Several neighborhoods of Porto Alegre, the most populated city in the region, are under water while its international airport announced on Friday night it would close for an undetermined amount of time.