Mudslide victims turn into rescuers
Source: Agencies |
January 17, 2011, Monday
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WEARY from days of steady rain, and bracing for severe thunderstorms predicted yesterday, survivors of mudslides that have killed 611 in -Brazil carried food, water and blankets to friends, neighbors and relatives still stranded in remote, stricken villages.
A slow stream of wet, muddy men and women, some in their bare feet, tied bags together and slung them over shoulders to carry basic provisions to those too frail to make the treacherous hike down to areas where relief was available on Saturday.
Promised government help was scarce. Helicopters sent to airlift those in need had difficulty flying through the low clouds and steady rain - many of the police and national guard were occupied with keeping order, not delivering aid.
No help - food, water, medication - had reached the survivors in cut-off communities like Cascata do Imbui by Saturday other than the little residents could haul. Two avalanches wiped out the road, leaving in places only a cracked ribbon of asphalt perched over an abyss.
After the disaster struck, official help was scarce, and residents were scrambling to rescue themselves - lugging water bottles, bags of groceries and blankets along kilometers of slippery, clay-covered rocks.
The rain made everything dangerously slick. Stronger thunderstorms were expected -yesterday.
Local and state fire departments said they had deployed 2,500 rescuers, while 225 federal policemen were in the area to maintain order.
President Dilma Rousseff designated US$60 million in aid for the state of Rio de Janeiro and the hardest-hit towns. The minister of national integration, Fernando Bezerra, said half the money would be in state and municipal accounts by today - six days after the -disaster struck.
The state has decreed a seven-day mourning period to remember the victims of the worst natural disaster to strike Brazil in 40 years.
Many residents seemed resigned to getting little real help. Wanderson Ferreira de Carvalho lost 23 family members - including his wife and two-year-old son - in the mudslides, yet spent Saturday hauling water and food up steep jungle trails.
"We have to help those who are alive," he said as he hauled supplies 8 kilometers up the trail. "There is no more help for those who are dead. I've cried a lot and sometimes my mind goes blank and I almost forget what happened. But we have to do what we must to help the living."
The mudslides hit an area of nearly 2,330 square kilometers in mountains about 65kilometers north of Rio.
A slow stream of wet, muddy men and women, some in their bare feet, tied bags together and slung them over shoulders to carry basic provisions to those too frail to make the treacherous hike down to areas where relief was available on Saturday.
Promised government help was scarce. Helicopters sent to airlift those in need had difficulty flying through the low clouds and steady rain - many of the police and national guard were occupied with keeping order, not delivering aid.
No help - food, water, medication - had reached the survivors in cut-off communities like Cascata do Imbui by Saturday other than the little residents could haul. Two avalanches wiped out the road, leaving in places only a cracked ribbon of asphalt perched over an abyss.
After the disaster struck, official help was scarce, and residents were scrambling to rescue themselves - lugging water bottles, bags of groceries and blankets along kilometers of slippery, clay-covered rocks.
The rain made everything dangerously slick. Stronger thunderstorms were expected -yesterday.
Local and state fire departments said they had deployed 2,500 rescuers, while 225 federal policemen were in the area to maintain order.
President Dilma Rousseff designated US$60 million in aid for the state of Rio de Janeiro and the hardest-hit towns. The minister of national integration, Fernando Bezerra, said half the money would be in state and municipal accounts by today - six days after the -disaster struck.
The state has decreed a seven-day mourning period to remember the victims of the worst natural disaster to strike Brazil in 40 years.
Many residents seemed resigned to getting little real help. Wanderson Ferreira de Carvalho lost 23 family members - including his wife and two-year-old son - in the mudslides, yet spent Saturday hauling water and food up steep jungle trails.
"We have to help those who are alive," he said as he hauled supplies 8 kilometers up the trail. "There is no more help for those who are dead. I've cried a lot and sometimes my mind goes blank and I almost forget what happened. But we have to do what we must to help the living."
The mudslides hit an area of nearly 2,330 square kilometers in mountains about 65kilometers north of Rio.
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