The Rio Negro flood this year is being influenced by the waters of the Madeira River and could be among the five biggest floods in 112 years. According to the expert in hydrology of the rivers of the Amazon, Marco Antônio Oliveira, the volume of water that the Madeira River throws daily into the Amazon River causes a sharp rise in the waters of the Negro River, which bathes the city of Manaus, one of the venues for the World Cup. World.
“With this extraordinary factor of the Madeira River flooding, the Amazon River is damming the Negro River. This (damming) causes a sharper rise in the waters of the Rio Negro. It’s a small effect, but it’s what makes it different from previous floods,” Marco Oliveira, who is superintendent of the CPRM (Brazilian Geological Service), an institution that monitors floods and ebbs in the Amazon basin, told the agency Amazônia Real.
The longest river of black water in the world, the Negro is born in Colombia and enters Brazilian territory through the north of the Amazon. In addition to Manaus, it bathes the cities of São Gabriel da Cacheira, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro and Barcelos. In Manaus, the Negro River meets the Solimões River, where it becomes the Amazon River.
The Madeira River is a tributary of the Amazon River and its mouth is in the Itacoatiara region (170 kilometers away from Manaus), a city that, like Manaus, is in an emergency situation due to flooding in the riverside areas.
This year, the Madeira River registered the historic flood reaching the mark of 19.47 meters in Porto Velho (RO) on March 30th. Its level remains above the normal mark, which is 10 meters. In the capital of Rondônia, which declared a public calamity, the State Civil Defense says that about 170 families continue to live in public shelters.
According to Marco Oliveira, the flow (outflow) of the Madeira River, which is usually between 30,000 m3/s (cubic meters per second) and 40,000 m3/s, this year also registered a historic mark.
“We recorded a flow of 75,000 cubic meters per second at the mouth of the Madeira River. It was an exceptional factor. This flow affected the lower Amazon, causing floods in Parintins, Barreirinha and Itacoatiara. Then it influenced Careiro and Manaus”, said Oliveira.
This Thursday (29), the Rio Negro reached the mark of 29.24 meters, as recorded at the Port of Manaus, where monitoring has been carried out since 1902. The mark exceeded the emergency level of 28.94 meters and It’s already the 9th. bigger full.
In the historic flood, the Rio Negro recorded 29.97 meters on May 29, 2012. Specialist Marco Oliveira expects the level of the Rio Negro to reach 29.44 meters, which could be among the five highest in 112 years.
The 3rd Flood Alert in Manaus will be released by the CPRM this Friday (30). The study, which is the last to be released since March, when the first was published, may provide more details on how the Rio Negro will behave in June.
This study allows the Civil Defense authorities to carry out actions in the lower areas of the city to minimize the effects of the flood on the population. In neighborhoods like São Jorge, in the west zone, Educandos, in the south zone, and in the center of Manaus, there are flooded areas. There are no records of homeless people.
Image of the rains in the month of May in Manaus recorded by the Earth Observation of INPE
Rains will be within normal at the World Cup
the 1st. District of the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) recorded the month of May as the wettest in the city of Manaus.
According to meteorologist Gustavo Ribeiro, until May 23, the accumulation of rainfall in Manaus was 382 mm (millimeters), that is, above the rate considered normal for the period, which is between 192 mm and 268 mm.
“We can say that the month of May 2014 in the city of Manaus was very rainy. The rains this month were well above normal, as there were favorable atmospheric conditions for the formation of clouds”, said Ribeiro.
For the month of June, when the World Cup games will take place at the Arena da Amazônia, the meteorologist says that the forecast is for rains within the normal average. “The rains should decrease towards the end of the month, as well as for the months of June and July,” he told the agency. Real Amazon Gustavo Ribeiro.
Amazonas has more than 200 thousand people affected by floods
The flooding of rivers in the Amazon basin has intensified since January with the abnormal volume of rainfall in the region. According to the State Civil Defense, of the 62 municipalities in Amazonas, 29 are in an emergency situation because of floods, among them Manaus (Black River), Parintins, Itacoatiara, Barreirinha (both by the Amazon River).
Two municipalities are in a state of public calamity: Humaitá (Madeira river) and Boca do Acre (Purus river). There are 226,096 people affected or 45,003 families by the flooding of houses, crops, businesses, farms and roads.
