Desperate search for Brazil mudslide survivors
Rescuers will spend a fourth day Sunday
scouring for survivors beneath an avalanche
of mud and mining sludge that buried a
village in southeast Brazil, killing at least two
people and leaving 28 missing.
Hundreds of firefighters, soldiers and
civil defense workers are frantically
combing through the viscous mass that
swallowed everything in its path for
signs of life.
The increasingly desperate search was
suspended at dusk Saturday because “it
is a high-risk area that is difficult to
access,” said Duarte Goncalves Junior,
mayor of the nearby city of Mariana.
The tragedy occurred when waste
reservoirs at the partly Australian-
owned Samarco iron ore mine burst
open, unleashing a sea of muck that
flattened the nearby village of Bento
Rodrigues on Thursday.
Since then, the tidal wave of sludge has
continued its destructive advance,
leveling a neighborhood and the main
plaza in the town of Barra Longa, 60
kilometers (35 miles) away, but causing
no loss of life there, a spokesman for the
mayor’s office told AFP.
The cascade of debris began with the
collapse of a dike at a reservoir holding
mining waste, which spilled into an
adjoining valley.
A short time later, a water reservoir
broke, and the mass of liquid sludge
swept over Bento Rodrigues.
“There was a horrible noise and we saw
the mud approaching. We ran for it. It is
a miracle that we are still alive,” said
Valeria de Souza, 20, with a baby in her
arms and tears in her eyes.
But not everyone was so lucky and
families of the missing were desperately
seeking news of their loved ones, amid
widely disparate official information.
Authorities have given contradictory
tolls of the dead and missing in and
around Bento Rodrigues, which has a
population of about 620.
The head of Mariana’s firefighting force,
Adao Severino Junior, had said that there
were at least 17 dead, adding to the
confusion.
But the official toll was later revised to
at least two dead and 28 missing, said
Goncalves Junior.
Mining giant BHP Billiton, joint owners
of the mine with the Brazilian company
Vale, said it was offering support.
“Words cannot describe the impact of
this tragedy on the employees and
contractors of Samarco, their families
and the community,” said BHP Billiton
chairman Jac Nasser.
Our thoughts are with the people of
Samarco, the affected community and
with the people of Brazil.”
– Child slipped away –
Meanwhile, flyers were circulated with
the picture of a missing five-year old
named Emanuele, who slipped from her
father’s arms as he ran ahead of the
torrent carrying her and her two-year-
old brother, the newspaper O Globo said.
“We saw him coming with the two
children, but he wasn’t able to hold on to
them,” Marlon Celio, 19, a neighbor, told
the newspaper.
“We helped grab him, but lost the girl.”
According to a list released by the
mayor, there are five missing children.
No warning sirens went off, company
officials say. Instead, they called the civil
defense authorities, as well as some
families and community leaders, to warn
them.
Panicked villagers ran screaming toward
high ground and from there watched as
their houses were swallowed in a river
of mud.
Besides leveling everything in its path,
the avalanche caused “enormous
environmental damage,” said Carlos
Ferreira Pinto, an investigator with the
Minas Gerais state prosecutor’s office.
The local Mariana miners’ union said the
sludge was toxic, but Samarco said it was
“inert” and contained no harmful
chemicals.
The head of Samarco’s emergency
planning operations, Germano Silva
Lopes, told a news conference the
company had detected a tremor, but no
anomalies in the dams before they burst.
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