Death toll from heavy rains in Brazil rises to 100

The death toll from heavy rains that swamped Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state in recent days has climbed to 100, local civil defense said on Wednesday, adding that 128 people were still missing. The storms have caused floods which destroyed bridges and buildings, turning streets into rivers and leaving more than 163,000 displaced in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state bordering Uruguay and Argentina.

The death toll from heavy rains that swamped Brazil's Rio Grande do Sul state in recent days has climbed to 100, local civil defense said on Wednesday, adding that 128 people were still missing.

The storms have caused floods which destroyed bridges and buildings, turning streets into rivers and leaving more than 163,000 displaced in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state bordering Uruguay and Argentina. Brazil's national center for natural disasters said on Tuesday that the southern area of the state was under "high risk" of more floods on Wednesday.

It said rainfall was expected to restart, and although it was not expected to be significant in volume terms, water levels are already high in many places, and the soil saturated. Weather forecaster MetSul said in a statement the region could face more "very large" floods "of serious proportions".