From the scenario of destruction that is seen in the Navegantes neighborhood, in Arroio do Meio, in the Taquari Valley, where hundreds of houses were practically swept from the map at the floods of last year, in Rio Grande do Sul, a detail passes nothing unnoticed to those who arrive at the place.
At the beginning of the street, right around the corner, there is an old two-floor house, robust-looking and large windows. In the mast installed high, a gaucho timula flag pointed to the river. It is practically the only building that remained standing in that area.
Traditional gastronomic point of the region, Casa do Peixe, a restaurant directed by the same family 70 years ago, became a symbol of gaucho resilience in the largest catastrophe ever lived by the state. With 117 years of existence, the mansion kept its structure intact in the face of the force of the current that tried to drag it in May 2024.
“The water arrived in the attic of Casa Grande, which is this building here where we are, there were 8.5 meters [de altura]. And there, in the back, in the house where I really live, covered everything, ”says Solange Oliveira Schneider to Agência Brasil.
She and her husband, Darcisio Schneider, known as popsicle, have been playing the business for 40 years. The restaurant was opened by Solange’s father in the 1950s.
Built at the beginning of the last century to be a mill, the property has thick wall and resisted the famous flood of 1941, hitherto the largest in the history of the state.
Several other smaller floods would occur again in that region over the decades. In 2023, for example, water went from 3.8 meters, reports the owner.
Despite the initial despair, Solange decided to resume the business, driven by this centenary resistance.
“When we went to make an x-ray of the house to see [as avarias]we saw that it did not reach anything [na estrutura]. So, there was no because we don’t start over. ”
Cleaning the property still took months. “We had to pull out tree from the inside to reach the top floor,” he describes.
Casa do Peixe finally reopened its doors on September 20 last year, precisely on the date on which the Farroupilha Revolution is celebrated, when the state fought for independence from the Empire.
Now, the property is undergoing studies to become a patrimony listed by the state of Rio Grande do Sul.
Opened from Tuesday to Saturday for lunch and dinner, the oldest restaurant in Arroio do Meio serves a caster of fresh and salty water fish, in preparations such as Embecheche, Steeping and Filet.
The movement at the Peixe House has not yet recovered from the flood, but the inauguration of the Ponte over the Forqueta River, about a month ago, should help. Destroyed by the floods, the bridge binds Arroio do Meio to Lajeado, connected several municipalities in the region.
Situation in Arroio
By the survey of the City Hall of Arroio do Meio, the demand for housing in the municipality is 700 houses. Of this total, about 100 must be made possible by the Federal Government’s Assisted Purchase Program.
The others will be built in two new neighborhoods that will be created in the municipality, outside the flooded area. This process, according to Mayor Sidnei Eckert, will still take a few years.
“The contracts are being signed, the projects are being put on paper and sent, but from there comes the issue of the company, which needs to do all the allotment infrastructure. All this needs to happen, it is very difficult that under 2 or 3 these houses are completed,” he predicts.
Already the Navegantes neighborhood, in the so -called drag area, where the houses were taken by the current, will be built a linear public park, with walking clues, bike paths and leisure equipment, such as other cities of the Taquari Valley.
The mayor believes that, by the end of his management, in 2028, the place is still in the process of construction. Not even the debris of the destroyed houses began to be removed. The manager says he seeks more resources to do the service at one time, still without prediction.
This content was originally published in RS, a 117 -year -old house resisted several floods of the Taquari River on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
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