An extratropical cyclone has pounded southern Brazil, flooding houses and waterways and killing almost two dozen people, state officials reported on Tuesday.
Luana da Luz is one of hundreds of Brazilians who have packed their possessions in order to flee the rising seas.
"Since dawn, we saw that (the water) was going to flood (our house), and we were putting things on top of the table, on top of the wood stove, but it didn't help," said Ms. Da Luz, a resident of Passo Fundo in the southern state of Rio Grande Sul, where state authorities have confirmed the deaths of 21 people.
According to local officials, an additional victim has been verified in the adjacent state of Santa Catarina.
Reuters received video showing houses in Mucum being inundated by increasing water, as well as streets and waterways being flooded.
A hailstorm destroyed the roofs of dozens of homes, and hundreds of residents in Rio Grande do Sul are without power.
Brazil's federal government has announced certain disaster-response plans, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has committed to do all it takes to "save people from these problems."
“I feel devastated. I lost everything,” said Dice Reginatto, from the city of Nova Bassano in Rio Grande do Sul. “There are many people who lost much more, but here at home I have nothing left.”
