translated from Spanish: Dead and missing, one of the worst catastrophes in Brazil

Rio de Janeiro-at least ten people were killed today and other eleven were rescued alive, some in serious condition, after an avalanche of Earth in a community in the Brazilian State of Rio de Janeiro, which was on alert for heavy rains that hit the region in recent days. The Commander of the fire brigade and Civil Defense of Rio de Janeiro, Roberto Robadey, Secretary explained that the Corporation received the first calls of distress around the 4.20 in the morning (6.20 GMT) by the inhabitants of the community of el Morro da Boa Esperança, in Niteroi.Los rescue teams managed to get 11 people alive from the rubble, including a baby, two children and a man of 33 years, who were admitted to hospitals in the region with wounds of different consideration.

At least 10 dead, 11 injured and four missing by rains in Brazil. Photo: EFE a three year old boy who was rescued in serious condition underwent surgery during the day and was stable. Some of the residents of the community were injured without gravity and received medical care in the place and they were released. However, ten people had their lives cut short when part of the Summit of the Morro da Boa Esperança is came down and buried six houses that were occupied at the time of the accident.

Photo: EFE among the dead included a child, two elderly women, a 37-year-old man, a woman and a 10-month-old baby. The State of Rio de Janeiro, especially in the city of Niteroi, was hit by heavy rains in recent days and was in a State of alert.
It rained a lot in the last two days. Niteroi was in a State of attention and alert according to the area and communities were advised of this situation, with the recommendation to seek safe places, he stressed Robadey.

According to a partial balance of firefighters, at least four people remained missing after more than 15 hours of rescue, but the Corporation was still working with the possibility of finding survivors under the rubble.

Photo: EFE “we always work with that possibility (of finding survivors). We have all the care the work of rescue, which is carried out practically almost everything by hand, with the possibility of finding people alive,”said the Commander in a live interview with the broadcaster Globo News.Entre firefighters, Civil Defense, social workers and volunteer officers, more than two hundred people helped in the rescue work, to be extended in night. After the tragedy, access to dozens of homes was blocked for safety reasons, so were set up tents in the vicinity of the region and a support base was mounted in a school to accommodate the homeless, as well as donations intended for those who lost everything in the slip.

Photo: The Mayor of Niteroi, Rodrigo Neves, EFE said the Morro da Esperança was not considered a place of high geological risk, but some of the residents denounced that “everyone knew that that was going to happen”. Rosemary Caetano da Silva, mother and grandmother of at least four of the wounded, told local television that the “Civil Defense reached lock houses” and that “take orders”, but he complained that no measure was carried out. Also the expert in management of risk, Gustavo Cunha Mello, stressed to the same television network that Brazil “still not learned to solve that kind of tragedy” and stressed that “there are solutions” to do so, but is missing “action” by the rulers.

Photo: EFE while in Rio de Janeiro hundreds of people worked against the clock to locate and rescue possible survivors, in the State of spirit, also in the region Southeast of Brazil, more than 360 people were desabrigadas by the strong rains which hit 73 of the 78 municipalities of the State. The storms are common during the spring and summer Brazilian, so that, when coupled with the unevenness of the geological terrain of the country and irregular constructions on the slopes of the mountains, usually produce landslides that, in many Sometimes, they turn out to be fatal.

In one of the worst catastrophes of this kind, in 2010, around 300 landslides on the hills in Rio ended up with the lives of more than 250 people, 48 of them in the Morro do Bumba, a former landfill on which was built a favela. In this note:

Original source in Spanish