Water, water everywhere

08/04/2008

Steady downpours for two weeks have triggered massive floods in north east Brazil, which have killed at least 15 people and forced tens of thousands from their homes.

BMS World Mission worker Daveen Wilson, who lives near Mossoro in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, said, "We have never seen anything like it in all the 20 years we've been here. The road is not a road - it's a river. A 12-year-old boy drowned there yesterday, and they have still not recovered his body.

"When we got up this morning, we had to wade through several inches of water to get to the outside toilet and the poor chickens were perched on various bits of higher ground, looking very bedraggled. [My husband] Mike got down the waveski and took the kids canoeing in the lane next to the church.

The path to the outside toilet

Canoeing in the lane

"The only way to travel, really, is by horse. It was already pretty wet on Sunday, when we went to do an open-air meeting in the Serra do Mel, which ended up not so open-air! The lorry we were going on couldn't get through, so we went in a couple of cars - the non-four-wheel-drive got stuck several times, and we all realised again why we are very grateful for the vehicle provided by BMS' partner organisation Operation Agri."

The flooding was made worse when the River Paraiba burst its banks and broke the walls of a medium-size dam in the state of Paraiba - a state that is normally arid.

The state of Paraiba has been the worst affected, with 15,000 evacuated, but officials have said that some 19,000 have been forced to flee their homes in nearby Piaui, 8,000 have been evacuated in Maranhao state and 7,5000 in both Pernambuco and Ceara.

The flood waters have also destroyed corn and bean crops and washed away roads.

Many roads were impassable

Yet in spite of all this damage, the land had been crying out for rain and many had been praying that rain would come.

Daveen sums up, "All over the state there's a mixture of celebration and concern - reservoirs are full for the first time in many years, but folk are having to be rescued by canoe from various places. It would be good to have a break from the rain for a bit but, on the other hand, it needs to keep on raining for three months in order for there to be crops."

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