Rafael Adriano Peres could barely move as he lay on a mattress at a shelter in Porto Alegre after he was hit by a car as historic floods ravaged southern Brazil this month.
The 35-year-old suffered two broken ribs but was unable to return home from hospital because the house he shares with his wife was flooded.
“We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We have to start all over again,” said Peres, who worked in waste management in Porto Alegre, now largely flooded after the Guaiba River overflowed its banks.
Surrounded by a mountain of donated clothing and toys, almost 800 people stayed in this large hangar in the capital Rio Grande do Sul on Sunday.
The state has been ravaged by a climate catastrophe for almost three weeks, with more than 150 people dead and around 100 people missing.
– ‘It’s only getting worse’ –
Some people plan to return to their homes once the high waters recede, but others, like 50-year-old Marcia Beatriz Leal, who has suffered three floods, have already given up that hope.
“You fight to get it all back and then it’s gone,” said Leal, who lived in a rental house in the flood-hit town of Estrela.
She spoke to AFP with her seven-year-old son Pietro and her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, sleeping next to her.
Leal, who makes clothes for pets, said she felt better after crying during a talk at the shelter organized by the city council’s mental health department.
She hopes to move with her mother and son to another area, hopefully sheltered from the region’s increasingly heavy rainfall, which scientists say is linked to climate change and El Nino weather patterns.
“This is nature giving back to us what we do with it,” Leal said.
Peres, huddled in colorful blankets next to Leal, agreed: “It is people who are destroying our planet. It will only get worse.’
He worries that other cities in Brazil could experience similar flooding, highlighting concerns about deforestation in the Amazon.
– ‘Life goes on’ –
About 13,000 people have taken refuge in 149 facilities in Porto Alegre, a city of 1.4 million, according to local authorities.
Those worst affected may face a lingering fear of the return of floods, but most will overcome that feeling, said psychologist Marta Fadrique, who heads the city’s mental health department.
Problems can include anxiety, insomnia and paranoia, she told AFP outside the center, where clothes dry in the sun and children run around, seemingly unaware of the tragedy.
Venezuelan cleaner Habraham Elises Gil, 25, left his country six years ago due to economic problems and rebuilt his life in Porto Alegre with his wife and two children.
He lost everything due to the floods, but is already thinking about starting over.
“The children give us strength. Life goes on. As long as we live, everything must go on,” Gil said.
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