Barreiros

Because of all the rain in Pernambuco, there is crazy flooding in towns around 30-45 minutes north of here all the way to Recife (as you may have read in my post about Shaun's trip home from Recife on Friday). Here in Maragogi there is nothing like that, but Sandro picked up Shaun after church to go deliver food and clothing to the town of Barreiros. The Air Force here has also started Operation Pernambuco because of the amount of people affected by the flooding. Here is a link from this morning. It is already outdated as I think the new number of dead is now at 23 or so. With no clean water it is sure to get worse. There is garbage floating through all the water in the streets and homes.

http://oglobo.globo.com/cidades/mat/2010/06/20/chuva-em-pernambuco-22-cidades-decretaram-emergencia-29-mil-pessoas-estao-fora-de-casa-916928668.asp

and the post from BBC. CBC doesn't have anything about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10361810.stm

So posted above are some pictures from Shaun of Barreiros now. He says the one story houses were covered or up to their roof in water, and many of them had water halfway up their second story. You can see water lines on the sides of the houses if you look closely. There were tanker trucks full of water where people could fill up their jugs of water. Sandro told Shaun that it was such a flash flood that mothers had their babies torn out of their arms. Shaun says there must be way more that have died than the official number. And the water has subsided enough to leave garbage everywhere. There was a school higher up where people are getting food and clothing. Our school here in Sao Jose is talking about opening up their kitchen to make food to bring there. There is also a picture of a group of people standing on an almost dry piece...that is the high point of the city. He says the whole city is destroyed...grocery stores, gas stations, houses that have collapsed, roads washed away.

It just drives home the point of how essential water is, yet how much damage it can cause. And we were worried about water flooding in through the windows and doors and no water for washing.