City that lost cemetery in RS flood gains land donated by resident The marks of the historic flood of 2024 are still present in Muçum, in Vale do Taquari, in Rio Grande do Sul. Without a cemetery since the destruction caused by the water, the municipality is now beginning to rebuild the space, more than two years after the tragedy. The Taquari Valley Region was one of the first to be hit by the Taquari River floods between the end of April and May 2024. Muçum was the second municipality with the most affected households in the state, with 66.3% of the population affected, according to the Single Map of the Rio Grande Plan (MUP). 📲 Access the g1 RS channel on WhatsApp Since then, families have had to look for other cities to carry out burials. Furthermore, many residents were left without a place to visit their relatives' graves, which were washed away or destroyed by the force of the flood. Cemetery in Muçum, a city hit by the 2024 flood in RS Reproduction/ RBS TV One of the main obstacles to the work was finding land that had an environmental license and was not at risk of being affected by new floods. The solution came with the donation of an area made by a city resident. "I'm very happy to have donated here, really happy. I donated from my heart. If it were today, I would donate again", says retiree Lorena Maria Zanetti. To make the change of address possible, the city council began work to identify the graves in the old cemetery. Muçum resident donates land to build a new cemetery in the city after destruction in the 2024 flood Reproduction/ RBS TV The survey includes contact with family members to recognize tombs, chapels and drawers. "We're going to have to do a survey of what it was like to identify all the chapels, all the drawers, call the population to identify them all", explains the Secretary of Planning, Wagner Capitânio. Those who witnessed the scene right after the flood don't forget what they saw: "Just like arriving in a horror movie. We gathered what happened, who we knew who it was, we informed family members", recalls gravedigger Alcides Liberato Pereira. After deactivation, the area where the cemetery was located must be transformed into a park. The place holds part of the city's history, with tombs that are more than a hundred years old and resisted the flood. Bodies that were removed from coffins during the catastrophe and could not be identified were sent to an ossuary, which will also be transferred to the new space. Cemetery in Muçum was hit by flood in 2024 in RS Reproduction/ RBS TV VIDEOS: Everything about RS