<div style="text-align: justify; "><b><span style="font-size: 1rem;">The death toll from tremendous flooding in southern Brazil has reached 100, the local civil defence agency said, as emergency crews continued to search for dozens of missing people.</span><br></b></div><div style="text-align: justify; "><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nearly 400 municipalities have been affected after days of heavy rains swamped the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">The floodwaters injured hundreds of people and forced 160,000 others from their homes as of Wednesday, while the state civil defence authority said 128 people were still missing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">Brazil’s national centre for natural disasters said the southern part of the state was under “high risk” of more floods throughout the day.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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 is saturated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Many residents have no access to drinking water or electricity – or even the means to call for help with telephone and internet services down in many places.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State Governor Eduardo Leite warned earlier this week that the human toll was likely to rise as “the emergency is continuing to develop” in the state capital of Porto Alegre and other areas.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only two of the six water treatment plants in Porto Alegre – home to about 1.4 million people – were functioning, the mayor’s office said on Tuesday, and hospitals and shelters were being supplied by tankers, reports Al Jazeera&nbsp;</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has promised that there would be “no lack of resources” to meet the needs of residents.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We understand the difficult financial situation faced by Rio Grande do Sul,” he said at an event in Brasilia, adding he wanted to make sure the state would get “everything it is entitled to”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“We still don’t know the exact dimension of the floods, that will only be clear to us when the water levels return to normal,” Lula said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd/fas</div>