Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul faces economic woes after floods, and an unclear path to rebuilding
Flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state ravaged nearly everything needed for economic activity, from local shops to factories, farms and ranches
RIO DE JANEIRO — Flooding in Brazil’s Rio Grande do Sul state ravaged nearly everything needed for economic activity, from local shops to factories, farms and ranches.
The environmental catastrophe — unprecedented in state history — upended transportation, including the airport in the capital Porto Alegre, which is expected to remain shuttered for months. Segments of major highways are closed due to landslides, washed-out roads and collapsed bridges. Blackouts continue to plague the state. Gov. Eduardo Leite has said Rio Grande do Sul will need a “kind of ‘Marshall Plan’ to be rebuilt,” although an exact strategy to do so in a way that reduces future climate disasters has yet to be determined.
Gilberto Zeni, a shopkeeper in Porto Alegre who has owned his store for 18 years, suffered huge losses.
“This has never happened before. It is very sad to go through a situation like this after so many years of work,” the 50-year-old said.
“But some people paid with their lives. This is a loss of material goods. We are going to rebuild. We are strong,” he added.
The scale of devastation may be most comparable to Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005, said Sergio Vale, chief economist at MB Associates. It has wrought havoc on services, production and sales, and many people are likely to lose their jobs, he said. Rio Grande do Sul’s economy — about as big as Uruguay and Paraguay combined — had been growing at 3.5% this year through April, but could end 2024 falling by 2%, according to his forecasts. That would mean a 0.4% dent in the nation's gross domestic product,
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