Porto Alegre shopkeepers take days just to clean stores
The receding waters of the Guaíba river in Porto Alegre’s historic downtown area have begun to unveil the extent of the damage caused by the flood that hit the state capital two weeks ago. With the power still out, the work of the last few days has chiefly consisted of cleaning up the streets as well as the establishments. “It should take me all week to be able to reorganize, clean up, and set up store again at this rate,” said Vespasiano de Menezes Neto, the manager of a drugstore near the capital’s public market, which is still flooded.On Monday afternoon (May 20), Neto was leading a group of employees in a strenuous clean-up of the facilities, which were still impregnated with fetid mud. On the floor were boxes of medicines and hygiene products. The water had reached a height of a...