Flooded Brazil ’ghost town’ a climate warning to world, UN advisor says VOD

Record floods that killed over 170 people and displaced half a million in southern Brazil are a warning sign of more disasters to come throughout the Americas because of climate change, an official at the United Nations’ refugee agency said on Tuesday (June 25). Roughly 389,000 people in the state of Rio Grande do Sul remain displaced from their homes because of the intense rain and flooding, which local officials say was the worst disaster in the region’s history. Scientists say climate change made the flooding twice as likely to happen. Andrew Harper, special advisor on climate action to the refugee agency UNHCR, visited a flooded neighborhood in the state capital Porto Alegre over the weekend and said the floods surpassed all expectations that local authorities had for climate disasters, and governments need to do more to prepare for these events. Even after the flood waters subsided, residents have not returned to the neighborhood where streets are piled high with water-logged