MASSIVE Humanitarian effort underway next door with neighbor Brazil.
- By : James Bryson
- Category : Environmental, World Events
With warships, cargo plans and field hospitals, the Brazilian Armed Forces deployed a huge operation to help the victims of the devastating floods in the south of the country, which have left at least 108 dead, 136 missing and entire cities under Water.
The Army, the Navy and the Air Force have joined the efforts to rescue and care for the hundreds of people who remain incommunicado since last week, when a rain storm, which has not yet ended, hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
From the beginning, the governor of this state bordering Uruguay and Argentina, Eduardo Leite, said that they were facing a “war situation” and the central government did not hesitate to mobilize the three arms of the Armed Forces.
More than 15,000 soldiers and agents from other forces participate in the so-called Operation Taquari II, according to official data.
The number of active teams shows the magnitude of the tragedy: 42 aircraft, 243 vessels and 2,500 vehicles and engineering equipment. Since then, more than 46,000 people have been rescued.
The logistics are very complex. The main airport in the region, Porto Alegre, is today a large lagoon and is inoperative. Access to some cities by land has directly disappeared.
The air route is the fastest for rescues; and the river to bring fuel, water and food, which are already needed in some parts of the region.
Reaching the most affected areas by land is a desperate odyssey. Major Roger Silva, commander of the field hospitals that the Army is going to set up in Rio Grande do Sul, assures that they have “made a great effort to bring the hospital. “This city was greatly affected by the floods.”
One of them is being built in the municipality of Eldorado. Although it took them a day to carry the entire structure.
They have had to make a huge detour because the head of the bridge that gave direct access to the municipality collapsed due to the force of the storm and now they are trying to rehabilitate it in a hurry, in a rudimentary way, by placing stones.
Along the way, the convoy made up of seven trucks and a military ambulance encountered a desolate place stained with mud, with makeshift tents and a large number of disoriented animals, such as dogs, horses and pigs.
Many gauchos have already left the city, but others have stayed and need urgent help. The field hospital, set up on land donated by a local businessman, will have capacity for 300 patients per day.
A dozen military health workers will provide care to low and medium complexity cases. The most serious cases will be transferred to Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, also heavily affected by the floods.
Osmar Alves Pereira, a 58-year-old baker, waits for a relative of his to be treated. He had been isolated by water since Thursday of last week and has just been rescued along with his seven dogs.
“We abandoned everything,” he told EFE.
He claims that he tried to stay at home as long as possible, but there came a time when the water level, which completely flooded the first floor of his home, was so high that he was forced to leave.
The lack of food also pushed him to leave. Of course, from the first moment he warned the rescue brigades that he would only go out with his seven dogs in tow.
Now he doesn’t know where to go. “They haven’t told me anything yet,” she laments. Her relatives are in the same situation. His houses are also under water.
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