<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The death toll from a cyclone that unleashed torrential rain and flooding on southern Brazil rose to at least 36 Wednesday, authorities said, as the region braced for more violent weather.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With the flood waters forcing some residents to climb onto their roofs, a major emergency operation was underway, with one official saying more than 1,000 people were awaiting rescue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The storms, which started Monday, left whole neighborhoods submerged in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The water rose so fast, I didn't even have time to take anything with me. I lost everything," said Paulo Roberto Neto Vargas, 39, a resident of the hard-hit town of Roca Sales, where emergency workers recovered six bodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There were so many people screaming, calling for help. We're only alive thanks to God," he told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Flash floods and landslides obliterated huge swathes of the affected communities, leaving trails of wrecked houses and muddy brown water.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It is the latest in a series of deadly weather disasters to hit Brazil, which experts say are likely being made worse by climate change.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Governor Eduardo Leite, who went on a flyover of flood-hit areas, said thousands of people were waiting to be rescued.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"There are still a lot of families stranded on the roofs of their houses," he said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The governor, who declared a state of emergency, called it the deadliest weather disaster ever to hit Rio Grande do Sul, as hundreds of rescue workers, police and volunteers continued efforts to reach areas cut off by flooding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 5,300 people have been forced from their homes, with at least 52,000 residents and 70 towns affected in all, authorities said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Leite warned the situation could worsen, with more rain forecast for late Wednesday and into Thursday, Brazil's independence day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said he had spoken with the governor and promised his administration's support.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I reiterated that the federal government is at the disposal of the people of Rio Grande do Sul to face this crisis," Lula wrote on X, formerly Twitter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">- 'Nothing left' -</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Communications Minister Paulo Pimenta, who joined the governor on his flyover of the disaster zone, said the federal government would request more aircraft to help in the rescue effort, in addition to four helicopters it sent Tuesday.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's a devastating scene," he wrote on X after touring the area.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The floodwaters submerged most of the town of Mucum, population 5,000, where 14 bodies were found, a revision of an earlier toll of 15.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Local media said authorities there and in neighboring Roca Sales had to resort to using a commercial refrigerator truck to transport victims' bodies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"It's frightening," Roca Sales Mayor Amilton Fontana told news site A Hora.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"The storm destroyed everything. There's nothing left in Roca Sales today."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The dead included a 50-year-old woman in the town of Lajeado who was being lifted to safety by rescue workers when the cable holding her broke, plunging her into a flood-swollen river.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A couple in the town of Ibiraiaras died when their car was swept away by the current as they tried to cross a bridge.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazil is not used to cyclones, but it is becoming "more and more frequent" for them to make landfall in the country, said Francis Lacerda, a researcher at the Pernambuco State Agronomy Institute's Climate Change Laboratory.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"These are extreme events, because the amount of energy released is exacerbated by global warming," she told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unchecked urbanization and irregular housing built on hillsides are also making weather disasters deadlier in Brazil, experts say.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In June, another cyclone left 13 dead in Rio Grande do Sul and forced thousands of people from their homes.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And in February, 65 people died in landslides caused by record flooding in the southeastern resort town of Sao Sebastiao, on the coast of Sao Paulo state.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">An estimated 9.5 million of Brazil's 203 million people live in areas at high risk of flooding or landslides. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>