On May 8, officials in charge of recovery efforts in response to large-scale flooding in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul have reported that at least 100 people have been killed, with dozens missing and 150,000 left homeless, according to Fox Weather.
The storms, which hit the region in late April, dropped over 20 inches of rainfall. The damage done to regional infrastructure has left more than 800,000 people without access to clean water, according to Brazilian water company Corsan.
This is the fourth fatal environmental disaster in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, this year.
Many scientists have linked the unprecedented flooding to El Nino, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The WMO highlighted the connection of the increased strength of this climate event and others like it, to climate change.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), climate change can create “sea level rise, changes in weather patterns like drought and flooding, and much more”.
The impacts of climate change are likely to become increasingly grave in the coming years, with an increasing number of catastrophic weather events that will lead to a high loss of life.
