This Friday the Brazilian city of Petrópolis recorded heavy rains again, three days after a historic storm that left at least 122 dead and covered entire neighborhoods with mud, under which they still lay missing.
Returning from his trip to Russia and Hungary, President Jair Bolsonaro flew over the city today and briefly visited the devastated area, accompanied by several of his ministers.
“We saw intense destruction, an image almost of war,” Bolsonaro said, in remarks broadcast on television.
The president defended himself against criticism aroused by the tragedy, which occurred due to torrential rains in a mountainous area with precarious constructions.
“We cannot foresee everything that is going to happen in 8.5 million km2 (the surface of Brazil, ndlr). The population is right to criticize, but this is a rugged region, it is not the first time that a tragedy has occurred here. We are going to do our part,” Bolsonaro added.
In this former imperial city, located north of Rio de Janeiro, work is still being done by the piece, although the hope of finding victims alive is running out.
“There can be 50 people here”
Morro da Oficina, one of the hills in the Alto da Serra neighborhood, can be considered the epicenter of the tragedy. About 80 houses on that hill were buried by the force of the torrents of mud that dragged cars, buses with passengers and everything in their path.
“It could be that there are still more than 50 people down here, since Tuesday 98” bodies have already been removed, Roberto Amaral, coordinator of the group specialized in natural disasters of the Civilian Firefighters Corps, explained to AFP, while troops and volunteers removed debris and they dug with shovels and hoes in the mud in search of any trace of life.
“We would like to finish as soon as possible, but here we have to work until the last one comes out,” he added.
In the morning, it rained heavily and the municipal authorities activated the warning sirens again due to the risk of landslides. After noon the water gave a respite.
A city with “fear”
“Everyone is very scared. Any noise scares us. The whole city is like this, ”Antenor Alves de Alcantara, a 67-year-old retiree, who moved with his relatives to a nearby hill, told AFP.
“It’s fine for the president to visit us, but it’s not going to change anything,” he added.
For his part, Pope Francis expressed “his condolences” and shared “the pain of all those mourning or stripped of their property,” in a telegram in Portuguese sent to the Bishop of Petrópolis, Gregorio Paixao Neto.
The disaster shows increasingly dramatic figures.
For now there are 122 confirmed dead, 24 rescued and 849 displaced, while the figures of missing are confusing due to the few identified bodies, which the state-run Agencia Brasil estimated at 57 this Friday. The Civil Police registered 116 missing, according to local media.
The federal government announced the release of aid of 2.3 million reais (440,000 USD), while the Ministry of Regional Development indicated that it will provide new amounts in the coming days.
On Thursday night, the rains returned with force, the rescue tasks were suspended and residents of several neighborhoods were called to take shelter in the homes of relatives or public shelters.
At least two streets were closed and the residents evacuated preventively after a landslide of “rocky blocks”, which caused no injuries.
According to the experts, the tragedy is the consequence of a combination of factors, including a six-hour rainfall that exceeds the historical average for all of February, the topography of the region and the existence of large neighborhoods of precarious houses, many of them built of illegally, in the steep risk areas. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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