By Staff reporters. Photos: CNS.
POPE Francis has prayed for flood victims in Brazil, hard hit in recent weeks causing scores of deaths and forcing major displacement.
The Holy Father’s thought for Brazil came after he prayed the Sunday Angelus with the crowd of faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
“I express my nearness to the people hit by strong rain and flooding in various regions of Brazil during these past weeks,” Pope Francis said.
“I am especially praying for the victims and their families, and for those who have lost their homes. May God sustain the efforts of those who are providing relief.”
Since the beginning of the year, hundreds of thousands of families have faced devastating flooding in the state of Bahia, Brazil.
The floods have displaced more than 93,000 people and have taken 26 lives.
People are scrounging for their few remaining belongings, and frantically searching for loved ones.
According to the website ReliefWeb, Brazil’s flood tragedy is man made.
In recent years, the country has continued building dams in order to expand hydropower despite the havoc caused to the environment and Indigenous communities.
And when they burst — which is increasingly likely as climate change worsens — they leave behind devastation.
In this case, following some of the heaviest rainfall in the history of Bahia, the overflowing of local rivers led to two dams bursting within 24 hours.
In Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, at least 12 people have died in landslides since the weekend.
The area has been pounded by intense rainfall, and authorities are monitoring dams that could also burst.
Minas Gerais’s 145 municipalities were in a state of emergency due to flooding with more than 17,000 people forced to leave their homes.
State authorities were monitoring 42 dams in the state, three of which were considered at high risk.
Water was overflowing the retaining wall of the Carioca hydroelectric dam, below which riverside residents had evacuated their homes, including in the town Para de Minas.
Minas Gerais was the site of two recent tragedies resulting from dam ruptures. In 2019, more than 200 people died when a dam in Brumadinho gave way, and in 2015, the collapse of another dam killed 19 people.
