{"id":585932,"date":"2026-08-15T23:28:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585932\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T23:28:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T23:28:24","slug":"everyone-is-scared-flood-hit-porto-alegre-braces-for-another-el-nino-el-nino-southern-oscillation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/585932\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Everyone is scared\u2019: flood-hit Porto Alegre braces for another El Ni\u00f1o | El Ni\u00f1o southern oscillation"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the backstreets of Porto Alegre, a state capital in southern Brazil<\/a>, you can still see signs of the devastating flood that swept through the city two years ago: scattered debris, waterlogged homes and destroyed businesses.<\/p>\n

In May 2024, flooding killed 183 people<\/a> in the state of Rio Grande do Sul and displaced more than 600,000<\/a>. The neighbourhood of Sarandi was one of the hardest-hit parts of Porto Alegre<\/a>, with water levels reaching up to 5 metres above normal, completely submerging many of its streets.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are still suffering the mental health consequences of the flood,\u201d says Lu\u00eds Rog\u00e9rio \u201cJamaika\u201d Machado, a community leader in Sarandi.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lost absolutely everything. Unable to rebuild their houses, most have become deeply depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jamaika at the cultural centre in Quilombo dos Machado. His community provided food, clothing and medical assistance to thousands of families during the 2024 floods<\/p>\n

In June, meteorologists announced the imminent return of El Ni\u00f1o<\/a>, the naturally occurring phenomenon caused by rising sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific but the effects of which are greatly aggravated by the climate crisis<\/a>. El Ni\u00f1o, which disrupts weather patterns across the globe, is likely to cause extreme rainfall and flooding in southern Brazil.<\/p>\n

Jamaika lives in an urban quilombo, a Brazilian settlement founded by escaped enslaved people or their descendants. Quilombo dos Machado is one of 11 such territories in Porto Alegre and served as a centre of solidarity for the entire Sarandi area during the flood, distributing food, clothing and medical assistance to thousands of families.<\/p>\n

Now Porto Alegre\u2019s flood-hit communities, though still recovering from one of Brazil\u2019s deadliest climate disasters, face renewed threats from this year\u2019s developing El Ni\u00f1o as incomplete flood defences and government relocation schemes fuel fears of displacement and deepen a climate justice crisis.<\/p>\n

A man walks through the rubble of destroyed homes in Sarandi, Porto Alegre, one of the worst affected nighbourhoods in the 2024 flooding<\/p>\n

Sarandi, along with other poorer areas of the city, is one such example. Despite being among those who are the least responsible for the emissions that cause climate breakdown, people there experienced the worst effects of the 2024 flood.<\/p>\n

This imbalance has led the Porto Alegre research group at the Metropolis Observatory, part of Brazil\u2019s National Institutes of Science and Technology (INCT), to call the flood a climate justice crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, these same people are bracing for yet another climate-induced disaster.<\/p>\n

The first storms caused by the latest El Ni\u00f1o arrived in Rio Grande do Sul in June, with rain and strong winds disrupting the region. Rising river levels affected at least 200 municipalities, leaving 1,800 people homeless<\/a> and many more outraged by the government\u2019s inaction over the past two years.<\/p>\n

Map showing location of Rio Grande do Sul within Brazil and South America<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o peaks in December, January and February,\u201d says Wilfran Moufouma-Okia, chief of climate prediction at World Meteorological Organization. \u201cSo we are just at the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

For people in Porto Alegre, the headlines bring renewed fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur house was completely submerged. We lost everything,\u201d says Suelen Telles, a pre-school teacher who lives in Sarandi. \u201cWe\u2019ve since returned to our house, and we\u2019re terrified of losing everything again. Everyone on our street is scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solange Rodrigues Correa, who lost her home in 2024 and has moved in with her grandson<\/p>\n

After losing her house in 2024, Solange Rodrigues Correa moved in with her grandson in Ilha Grande dos Marinheiros, an archipelago on the margins of the city. News reports have caused her to worry about the flood waters returning, and Correa, who suffered a stroke due to the stress of the 2024 floods, has not slept for several nights in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce again, what will become of us?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Rudimar Dal Asta, a priest in Ilha Grande dos Marinheiros and one of the community leaders who helped in rescue missions during the previous flood, says the government has given assurances that there is an evacuation plan, but they have not seen it yet. \u201cOur escape route is to run to the bridge, just like we did in 2024,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Over the past few months, Porto Alegre has repaired floodgates, replaced sewer covers, and rebuilt a section of the Sarandi dyke. Mayor Sebasti\u00e3o Melo announced that improvements to pumping stations \u2013 which were shut off in 2024 due to the risk of electric shock \u2013 would be completed by November.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve finished many projects,\u201d says Melo. \u201cOthers are now under construction, and others have yet to be started. Porto Alegre is now a much more protected city.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the south of the city, however, the preparations remain makeshift: sandbags, movable barriers and floating pumps. Certain neighbourhoods, such as Ilha Grande dos Marinheiros, do not have adequate protective infrastructure and people are apprehensive.<\/p>\n

The Sarandi dyke was damaged in 2024 and was partly rebuilt by the Porto Alegre authorities<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flood protection systems are still incomplete,\u201d says Leonardo Bauer Maggi of the Movement of People Affected by Dams (MAB), a large grassroots social movement that supports the affected population.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey installed emergency sirens, but we don\u2019t know where to run if they sound,\u201d he says. \u201cNo shelters have been prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Porto Alegre administration is now being sued<\/a> for the failures of the flood protection system in 2024. Last year, the state court of auditors revealed that a lack of investment and a series of other failures combined to weaken flood-protection measures in Porto Alegre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Auditors held Melo, as well as the former mayor Nelson Marchezan J\u00fanior, responsible for a \u201cserious disregard for the duty of care\u201d. The public prosecutors\u2019 office has since sued the city of Porto Alegre for 50m reais (\u00a37.3m) to reimburse 19 neighbourhoods affected by the flood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to prepare for El Ni\u00f1o, but we still don\u2019t know how,\u201d says Jamaika. \u201cWhen the water rises, the only alternative presented by the government is to leave the area in an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people wait for help on a street above the flood waters in Porto Alegre in 2024<\/p>\n

Last month, the state government launched Prepara RS, an emergency initiative<\/a> to assist policymakers, organise volunteers and provide public guidance about imminent storms to the people of Rio Grande do Sul. The initiative has transferred 32.3m reais to 138 municipalities across the state.<\/p>\n

In a statement praising the quality of its monitoring systems and its flood defences, the state government said: \u201cIn recent years, the government has been making progress in a series of structural, operational and strategic improvements to prepare the state to face extreme events, including possible negative effects of El Ni\u00f1o.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the state government acknowledged that it had failed to predict the recent rise of river levels, which have now flooded cities across the region.<\/p>\n

A recent study<\/a> by the Celso Furtado International Centre for Development Policy and the Climate and Society Institute revealed that the state government had spent less than 0.5% of its climate budget<\/a> on mitigating future disasters.<\/p>\n

Maggi says the people most affected by the floods are working class, who had to borrow money to rebuild their homes. \u201cThe water receded, but the flood didn\u2019t pass,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Residents of Quilombo K\u00e9di are being removed to make way for new towers and a golf course to be built around their destroyed homes<\/p>\n

About two-thirds of people affected in Rio Grande do Sul<\/a> had a family income at or below 5,000 reais (\u00a3730) a month, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jamaika says nearly 7,000 families in his quilombo were affected by the flood \u2013 and 4,500 of them have not yet recovered, which he blames on a lack of government assistance.<\/p>\n

In 2024, the federal government distributed 5,100 reais of \u201creconstruction aid\u201d to about 430,000 affected families, totalling 2.2bn reais, based on government data<\/a>. But Jamaika says this aid was woefully inadequate for those in his community. \u201cRebuilding their lives becomes almost impossible. What house can you rebuild with 5,000 reais?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many in Porto Alegre accuse the city and state governments of using floods to displace them. Bet\u00e2nia Alfonsin, a law professor and member of the Metropolis Observatory, says houses in flood-risk areas are demolished when people relocate and are often refurbished for wealthier owners who can afford risk mitigation.<\/p>\n

The classification of \u201crisk area\u201d is often used selectively, says Alfonsin. \u201cIt\u2019s a stamp of expulsion for the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Critics say houses are being built on cleared sites by wealthier owners when poor families are forced to relocate <\/p>\n

Most people in these areas are relocated through government programmes such as My Home, My Life<\/a>, which offers financing for new homes. However, people say the mortgage is burdensome. \u201cThey push My Home, My Life as a solution, which we call \u2018My Debt\u2019,\u201d jokes Solange Correa. \u201cYou had a house \u2013 now you get a debt for life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another federal government housing programme, Assisted Purchase, gives 200,000 reais towards a new property. In Porto Alegre, 9,477 people applied, with 5,800 of those approved. After receiving funds, the old homes are demolished, leaving people remaining in rubble in neighbourhoods such as Ilha Grande dos Marinheiros and Sarandi, which resemble war zones.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis programme is problematic because it negotiates family by family rather than community,\u201d says Alfonsin, who argues that it promotes the dispersal and destruction of communities.<\/p>\n

More than 50% of Assisted Purchase recipients bought homes in other cities. For Jamaika, the programme \u201cis yet another expression of gentrification\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the backstreets of Porto Alegre, a state capital in southern Brazil, you can still see signs of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":585933,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,141],"class_list":["post-585932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=585932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/585932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/585933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=585932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=585932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=585932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}