Itajai-Acu River Rises to Flood Stage in Famous Octoberfest City
BLUMENAU, Brazil - The heavy rain punishing the state of Santa Catarina since Wednesday afternoon has caused several landslides and the Itajai-Acu river has risen to beyond flood level leaving the city, located 120 km from the capital, Florianopolis, in a state of emergency, reported terra.com.br on Thursday.
At lease 11 landslides were detected by the Civil Defense on Thursday morning. Additionally, two houses collapsed after being hit by mud slides in the old neighborhoods of Velha Grande and Salto Testo. Nobody was reported injured.
The Civil Defense is concerned with the level of the Itajai-Acu River, which is rising at more than 30 cm per hour. At around 10 am Thursday the river reached 8.5 meters, which caused the first floods in the city since the storm began early Wednesday morning. The forecast indicates that the level could reach ten meters by noon, which would leave dozens of streets impassable.
Authorities say that about 10,000 people could be affected by the floods. As of this morning, 160 have been evacuated to shelters.
The unrelenting rain, which is expected to last through Friday, has damaged at least three Federal Highways in the area: BR-470, linking the city to the coast as well as highways 282 and 280.
According to the weather service Climatempo, from 8 am Wednesday to 8 am Thursday, Florianopolis received 98 mm of rain, Nova Horizonte 86 mm and Itajai 71.8 mm.
Read also: More Articles from Brazil Dispatch
Brazilian online news source for this article: terra.com.br
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