Historic floods kill 78, leaving Brazil and its president indignant, shaken | EUROtoday

The airport is shut down. Dozens of highways have been blocked. Most within the state capital are with out operating water. And the dying toll is already at 80 — and certain to climb larger.

Even in a rustic more and more inured to pure disasters pushed by local weather change, the flooding that has slammed into Rio Grande do Sul, one among Brazil’s most affluent states, has badly shaken this nation of 215 million. With greater than half of the cities within the state coping with flooding, and 20,000 left homeless, Rio Grande do Sul hasn’t simply been broken. It has been crippled.