From Brazil to Mount Maunganui

A new reality for climate, disability & resilience

By Juliana Carvalho

I never thought of myself as “at risk” because of my physical impairment. That belief changed dramatically in May 2024.

I was in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, for a long-planned visit after eight years away. The trip began beautifully, reconnecting with family and friends. But in early May, the worst flooding event in the state’s recorded history tore everything apart.

Weeks of unprecedented rainfall overwhelmed rivers, dams and entire communities. Roads turned into rivers. Bridges were washed away. The airport flooded. I was in the capital, Porto Alegre, where water and electricity became luxuries. More than half a million people were displaced. Hundreds were killed, injured or went missing as entire towns were swallowed by water and mud.

What I remember most vividly is the sound: helicopters rescuing people, the constant hum of emergency and chaos. I found myself in a hotel room, counting my medications, checking how many catheters I had left, calculating how long I could survive if I wasn’t evacuated before my supplies ran out. For the first time, I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to make it out.

A friend who had travelled from the United States to meet me was also trapped in the disaster. She joked grimly that Americans “throw money at the problem.” In the end, that’s what saved us. We paid a private company to drive us in a 4x4 Jeep along the only road still standing – a 500-kilometre lifeline through Santa Catarina state and eventually to a flight home.

That experience changed me.

I had always believed personal resilience was enough. But no amount of individual strength can replace systems that fail in a crisis – especially when you live with a disability. From that moment on, I realised I could no longer do disability advocacy without a climate adaptation lens.

No amount of individual strength can replace systems that fail in a crisis – especially when you live with a disability.

Since Brazil, heavy rain doesn’t just make me uncomfortable. It triggers a visceral, full-body fear – something I’m still learning to name and work through.

The New Normal in Aotearoa

I live in Papamoa, Tauranga, and last month, I had the same sinking feeling I had in Brazil before everything unravelled. I told my mum and niece, “I think this is going to be bad.” Within 30 seconds, our phones lit up with a Civil Defence red alert. Call it intuition. I just knew it in my bones.

I checked my grab bag, filled water bottles, packed supplies for my cat, and screenshotted flood-risk maps to send to family members. My mum and brother live in a flood-prone zone near the Wairakei Stream.

Someone posted a photo of the stream level – it was high. I asked Civil Defence if an evacuation order would be issued if the levels got critical. But had no response.

I transferred from my wheelchair to my bed but simply could not sleep. I stayed awake until 4am, constantly checking Civil Defence updates and local Facebook community groups. I used every breathing technique and affirmation I know to keep a panic attack at bay – but it was hard. In just 12 hours, we received nearly two months’ worth of rain. I finally slept when the rain eased.

That relief didn’t last. By morning, news emerged of the tragic landslides at Mount Maunganui and Welcome Bay.

These events did not happen in isolation. What we are experiencing now – in Brazil, in Aotearoa and across the world – is not a “once-in-a-generation” weather event. It is the new normal.

We need to go beyond emergency response to reckon with climate adaptation: fundamentally rethinking how we live, build, plan, and care for one another in a world where extreme climate events are no longer extraordinary, but expected.

The lessons are confronting but clear. We must stop placing homes, campgrounds and critical infrastructure in places where floods and landslides are predictable. We need accessible early-warning systems, inclusive planning, and infrastructure that accommodates everyone. We must retreat thoughtfully where risks are no longer manageable. And we must actively foster disability communities leadership in emergency preparedness and climate adaptation planning.

Disabled people are experts in adaptation. We’ve spent our lives navigating systems that were never designed for us. But climate adaptation cannot rely on individual resilience alone. It requires systemic change – inclusive governance, accessible information, equitable emergency support and decision-making that centres lived experience.

That is why I am excited to be an implementation partner in the Disability-Led Climate Adaptation Pilot, working with Auckland Council, a disability-led Grant Advisory Panel, and Community Think.

This pilot will invest $150,000 in disabled-led climate adaptation projects across Tāmaki Makaurau. What makes it different is that disabled people are not just consulted – we are helping design the process and recommending which projects are funded. Lived experience sits at the centre of decision-making, where it belongs.

Climate impacts intersect with disability, ethnicity, age, income, housing and access. If adaptation strategies are not guided by those most affected, they will fail.

As we grieve the losses at Mount Maunganui and Welcome Bay and seek accountability we must also ask ourselves: how do we live differently? How do we build communities that are truly resilient – not just physically, but socially and emotionally?

Climate adaptation is not optional. It is not a distant policy conversation. It is happening now – in floods, landslides, heatwaves, and in the hearts of people trying to sleep through the next storm.

I never want to feel as helpless as I did that time in Rio Grande do Sul again. But more than that, I want our systems – our councils, planners, and communities – to be able to say: we saw you, we planned for you, and we acted.

We can do this together.

• Learn More: Disability-Led Climate Adaptation Pilot Information

Juliana Carvalho is a disability advocate, author, and consultant based in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the council's Implementation Partner Engagement for the Disability-Led Climate Adaptation Pilot.