A broken dike affects 700 homes in Porto Alegre.
Residents affected by the dam breach are being relocated to the Liberato Vieira da Cunha Municipal School. The city government has provided food for approximately one thousand people affected by the breach. According to the city government, there are no reports of injuries.
Kelly Oliveira
Reporter from Agência Brasil
Brasilia – The rupture of a containment dike of the Gravataí River dam in the early hours of today (31) caused flooding in the Sarrandi neighborhood, in Porto Alegre. According to the Secretary of Civil Defense, Ernesto Teixeira, about 700 houses were affected. "It is the biggest water spill tragedy in [Porto Alegre] since the great flood of 1941," Teixeira said in a telephone interview with Agência Brasil.
The city hall also reported that the cracked section is undergoing reconstruction with sand and gravel. According to the Secretary of Civil Defense, the water is still rising because the dike has not yet been fully repaired. City hall employees have been working at the site since 1 a.m.
Residents affected by the dam breach are being relocated to the Liberato Vieira da Cunha Municipal School. The city government has provided food for approximately one thousand people affected by the breach. According to the city government, there are no reports of injuries.
According to the city hall, the causes of the rupture are being investigated. As a safety measure, the electricity supply to the region was interrupted overnight and into the early morning, but service has now been restored.