Deng Li (not her real name), a Chinese businessman from Taishan, Guangzhou, who started her business in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil last year, runs a mobile phone accessories retail store on the bank of Yakui River in the city center. Now, due to the torrential rain, the river is flowing backward, and the store that invested most of her savings is soaking in muddy water.

Rio Grande do Sul, located in southern Brazil, has been hit by torrential rain for several days and is experiencing severe floods, landslides and other disasters. The water level of Guaiba River and other water systems has risen, trapping the coastal areas. Many Chinese businessmen interviewed said that the villages of the Brazilian workers they hired had collapsed and even razed to the ground.

According to the data of the civil defense department of Rio Grande State in southwest Pakistan on the 8th, 100 people were killed, 128 lost contact and 372 injured. 417 of the 497 cities in the state were affected, and more than 1.4 million people were affected.

Chinese shops flooded

Although it has been sunny for three consecutive days, on the 8th day, the waterlogging in several cities in the state has not been eliminated, and the waterlogging in some cities is still rising. The weather forecast shows that there will still be heavy rain on the 9th and 10th, which makes people worried.

The ponding in Porto Alegre is still more than 5.4 meters, and several communities have been without water and power for more than 7 days. Deng Li witnessed that the supermarket shelves were emptied of water and dry food, and more than 200 people queued to borrow the supermarket power supply for charging.

"In the monitoring, we saw the water rising from the ankle, over the knee, over the counter, and finally the monitoring was submerged. Day by day, we were discouraged." Deng Li said sadly to reporters on the phone that the original red brick and red wall of shops here was a charming commercial landscape along the Yakui River, but now the water has no head. "Several shops in that row are run by Chinese businessmen. Everyone says that they have not seen such heavy rain in more than 20 years. The losses have been in vain for several years."

During the ten minutes of the call, a neighbor sent seafood and meat dishes to Teng Li's home, and a Brazilian friend living in the nearby disaster free town also sent several packages of candles by motorcycle. "I'm going to send candles to people in need," said Deng Li.

More than 20 hours out of the city

Porto Alegre Airport will not reopen until May 30. The federal highway BR-386, which crosses the Taquari River and connects many cities, also destroyed the Taquari Bridge due to the surge of the river, resulting in complete traffic paralysis; Shops and supermarkets on the river bank were also flooded and destroyed.

A staff member of a Chinese enterprise who had been out of the city for about 20 hours told reporters that he and his colleagues needed to travel from Porto Alegre to Sao Paulo International Airport to return to China. The expressway collapsed, and the transportation capacity of airports in nearby cities and towns decreased sharply. They could not take a flight at the two airports in neighboring states, and finally spent thousands of yuan to take a taxi to Sao Paulo.

"It's really a hard experience. It's even more painful to witness that the original magnificent pastoral scenery has been submerged all the way," said the staff member of the Chinese enterprise.

As of August 8, 142 roads in the state were still closed in whole or in part. Feifei, a Chinese businessman who helped Chinese employees get out of the city, told reporters that many citizens who booked international flights could take buses to Sao Paulo for transfer, but it still took more than 25 hours.

"Brazil's granary" was hit hard

As the "granary of Brazil", Rio Grande do Sul is the main rice producing area in the country. According to Favaro, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry of Brazil, the rice production in this state accounts for 70% of the country, and 1.6 million tons of rice are not harvested at present. Therefore, the Brazilian government will import 1 million tons of rice from neighboring countries to maintain the stability of local rice prices.

Brazil is one of the largest tobacco export countries, and Rio Grande do Sul is the "tobacco city" of the country. At present, it is the tobacco production season, but many tobacco plants gathered in South Santa Cruz have stopped production for several days.

Recently, the last group of 15 staff members from the Brazilian side of China Tobacco International Brazil Co., Ltd. on their way home on the company's bus were hit by heavy rain, and the subgrade was washed away by floods. The staff members stayed at the gas station for 36 hours on the way.

"Most of our employees live in the countryside. There are 58 of our 99 employees who have lost contact with each other. We have been trying to contact and ensure the safety of our employees these days." Zhou Xinghua, the head of China Tobacco International Brazil Co., Ltd., briefly summarized the dilemma to reporters by telephone on the 8th: there is no problem in the factory, the power is slightly stable, the network is good and bad, there is no water, and there is no gasoline supply, and the transportation and logistics are blocked. "Heavy rain in peak production season will inevitably have a huge impact on the tobacco industry this year."