In Brazil, several sectors in Rio Grande do Sul state remain underwater

*Government approved financial and material aid for those affected *All the displaced can do is wait

Transcript

00:00 Over a half million people who were forced out of their homes during the worst floods

00:05 in the history of southern Brazil are wondering what is going to happen to them next.

00:09 Our correspondent Brian Meyer reports.

00:13 Four weeks after the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul was hit with the worst

00:17 floods in its history, causing 169 deaths, large sections of cities like Porto Alegre

00:23 are still underwater.

00:25 And the state is suffering from an internally displaced persons crisis, with 581,000 people

00:30 living in shelters or crowding into the homes of friends and family, many of which now have

00:35 more than 20 people living in them.

00:40 The people are being dumped into different locations.

00:44 Their lives are being determined by social services which barely exist.

00:48 Here in the Prata Velha collective, which has opened its doors in solidarity with the

00:52 victims, there are people arriving who have been misinformed.

00:57 They have been rescued and thrown into shelters, but they aren't getting any information and

01:01 they are being underfed.

01:03 So they leave these places and go to relatives' houses.

01:06 President Lula has allocated cash grants of 5,100 reais to every family that has been

01:11 displaced, but the Porto Alegre city government has been demanding photo IDs from the victims,

01:16 many of whom lost them in the floods.

01:19 The federal government has also announced that it will build houses for every displaced

01:23 family making up to two times the minimum wage, but they're going to take at least six

01:27 months to build.

01:28 In the meantime, many residents say they will never move back to their old neighborhoods.

01:35 I don't plan on moving back to the same neighborhood.

01:38 I am going to wait to see what kind of government support arrives so that I can start over in

01:43 a safe place that doesn't have floods.

01:45 That is my main plan, to live in a place that doesn't flood, because this situation has

01:49 been really terrible.

01:51 For now, all that the over half a million internally displaced people in Rio Grande

01:55 do Sul can do is wait.

01:58 Brian Mier, Telassur, Porto Alegre.

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