My daughter just got back from Rio de Janeiro where she was visiting
schools and slums with a do-gooder Brazilian friend. This is what I
call an Eleanor Roosevelt style vacation. Anyway, the day after she
left the city was hit with the worst flooding in its history, which
is widely ascribed to global warming. At least, the Brazilians think
that is the cause.
This has not been widely reported in the U.S. news.
Her friend sent her the following account an hour ago:
The rain we had this week was the heaviest we ever had here, and the
consequences of it were indeed worse than we could have ever conceived.
It affected the whole city, leaving no neighborhood free from the damages.
I couldn't leave my apartment for over 24 hours, for as you know, my
street is very high and you can only access it from that avenue with
the waterway.
So as you may imagine, both ends of my street turned into massive
waterfalls and that waterway overflew.
I was completely isolated, but very fortunately for me, safe. so were
all of the girls you met. All we had to deal with was the
inconvenience of not being able to leave our homes.
The streets were completely full of water, that went as high as
people's knees, so the transportation system in Rio collapsed. Nobody
was able to work that day , and those who were brave enough to try
had to go home all soaked and frustrated. The lagoon was also
overflown until yesterday, and many roads and tunnels have been
blocked ever since.
Luckly, I think all of my friends were somehow safe, as well as my
family. One other risk of being out in the streets had to do with
opportunist robbers, that would take advantage of stuck cars, for instance.
The biggest problems happended, of course, in the poorest areas. The
slums (or as we call them, the "favelas") are usually uphill and
since the huts are irregular constructions, as the earth slid it
brought them all down with it. So far the official number of deads is
around 138 and growing by the hour.
It was a catastrophe like no other we have ever seen here, but i
guess thats only nature's response to men and the destruction we've
been causing for so long now.
- Jed
