The 2024 Rio Grande do Sul floods were severe floods caused by heavy rains and storms that hit the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. From 29 April through to May 7, it resulted in 183 fatalities, 27 missing persons, 806 wounded, widespread landslides, and a dam collapse. It's considered the country's worst flooding in over 80 years.
1/3 of a year's rainfall in 3 days -
700mm rainfall
14 trillion liters of water filled the Guaíba river
Around 2.4 million people were impacted by the rains and their effects, with more than 442,000 residents forced to leave their homes (around 18,000 in shelters and 423,000 displaced).
More than 640,000 homes had no access to a clean water supply, and more than 440,000 customers were left without electricity.
Nasa satellite image during flood & before
https://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/152795/floods-engulf-porto-alegre
https://www.visibleearth.nasa.gov/images/152795/floods-engulf-porto-alegre
the irony of being surrounded by water and having no access to clean drinking water
Aircraft on Flooded Tarmac - photographed by Anselmo Cunha
Winner of World Press Photo Contest 2025 (South America, singles)
"A Boeing 727-200 still surrounded by floodwaters weeks after the flood at Salgado Filho International Airport in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
The impact of the photograph lies in the startling juxtaposition between the grandeur of the tragedy and the strange beauty of a plane suspended between sky and water, becoming an unsettling symbol of the vulnerability of modern systems in the face of natural disasters."
Podcast: O Fim do Futuro
5-episode podcast by Matinal and Vós telling the story of Porto Alegre's floods (in Portuguese)
Notes from listening to the podcast (original in Portuguese, and English below)
Português
• Ouvimos muitas declarações covardes. ”É aquecimento global, não tem nada a ver conosco.” Ê covarde, porque admitir a verdade, admitir os fatos, significaria ter que assumir responsabilidade.
- Antonio Nobre, agrônomo, cientista e ativista
- Antonio Nobre, agrônomo, cientista e ativista
• Tudo está ligado com tudo
• O problema está no nosso proprio modelo de sociedade, nossa obsessão pelo progresso
• Precisamos ter um limite de transformação destes ecosistemas, se não estamos nos expondo ao risco da diminuição dos serviços desse ecosistemas - a qualidade do ar, da agua
- José Lutzenberger, agrônomo, escritor, filósofo, paisagista e ambientalista
- José Lutzenberger, agrônomo, escritor, filósofo, paisagista e ambientalista
• O rio não é só um curso de agua - é um corpo que vive em diálogo com a Terra
"aguas cor de lama, alaranjadas"
• O que aconteceu foi resultado previsível e evitável de uma combinação de fatores que vem sendo denunciados há mais de 40 anos
• A ciençia foi continuamente ignorada
• Francine Conde Cabral, vítima das enchentes, voltou para casa depois do desastre. Dormindo e olhando pro teto, vendo a marca de agua, pensou que se estivesse ali durante a enchente, ela teria morrido. Não sabe nadar, então teria sufocado. Ela passou a noite com a sensação de que estava afogando
• Progresso pra que, e pra quem?
- Beatriz Goncalves
- Beatriz Goncalves
• Mesmo aonde a agua não ousou chegar, chegou. Sem molhar, mas chegou e entrou nas casas fechadas. Como um pensamento ruim, ocupou o ar. Como um silencio espesso, proibiu que se fosse de um lugar ao outro
English
• We hear a lot of cowardly statements. “It’s global warming, it has nothing to do with us.” It’s cowardly, because admitting the truth, admitting the facts, would mean having to take responsibility
- Antonio Nobre, agronomist, scientist and activist
- Antonio Nobre, agronomist, scientist and activist
• Everything is connected to everything
• The problem lies in our own model of society, our obsession with progress
• We need to limit the transformation of these ecosystems, otherwise we are exposing ourselves to the risk of reducing the services of these ecosystems - reduction of air and water quality
- José Lutzenberger - agronomist, writer, philosopher, landscaper and environmentalist
- José Lutzenberger - agronomist, writer, philosopher, landscaper and environmentalist
• The river is not just a watercourse - it's a body that lives in dialogue with the Earth
"mud-colored, orange waters"
• What happened was the predictable and avoidable result of a combination of factors that have been reported for over 40 years
• Science was continually ignored
• Francine Conde Cabral, a victim of the floods, returned home after the disaster. As she slept, looking at the ceiling and seeing the water mark, she thought that if she had been there during the flood, she would have died. She doesn't know how to swim, so she would have suffocated. She spent the night feeling like she was drowning
• Progress for what, and for who?
- Beatriz Goncalves
- Beatriz Goncalves
• Even where the water didn't dare to go, it flowed. Without wetting, it flowed into closed houses. Like a bad thought, it filled the air. Like a thick silence, it prohibited anyone from going from one place to another