This is one of those events that will go down in history,” added Leite, who has declared a state of emergency in 397 of his state’s 497 towns and cities.
One of the worst-affected cities is the state capital, Porto Alegre, which sits along the Guaíba river. The waterway hit a record level of 5.33 metres (17.5ft) on Sunday morning – even higher than during historic 1941 floods when it rained for more than 20 days straight.
“Porto Alegre has been devastated, leaving virtually the whole city without its supply of water, electricity and food,” the newspaper O Globo reported on Tuesday, describing “a situation of unprecedented sorrow” in the flooded city of 1.4 million inhabitants.