The heavy rains that hit the city of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, since last Tuesday (15th), left at least 146 dead, according to the state Fire Department. There are 191 missing and 967 homeless or displaced.
The concepts of homeless and homeless are different. Homeless is one who has lost his home and is in a public shelter. The homeless person had to leave his home – he did not necessarily lose it – and he is not in shelters, but at the home of a relative, friend or acquaintance, for example.
President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) visited the city, this Friday (18), to monitor the work of the teams. The federal government released an initial transfer of R$ 2.33 million. The authorization came from the Ministry of Regional Development (MDR). The ordinances that release the resources were published in an extra edition of the Official Gazette (DOU), on Thursday night (17).
At 6:40 am this Friday, the Civil Defense reported that rain cores were moving towards the municipality. “Weak to moderate rain forecast for the next few hours,” he warned.
Until 7:55 am, residents were alerted nine times by sirens, which indicate a risk situation for landslides and serve as an indication for people to move away from the site. The sirens were sounded at seven different locations in Petrópolis.
The Civil Police said, on Friday morning (18), that 117 bodies of victims of the tragedy were already at the IML (Forensic Medical Institute), but only 57 were identified. Twenty victims were minors.
Until the last update from the authorities, 849 people were housed in 19 support points, which were opened in local public schools.
At these points, the population is assisted by teams with social workers, health and education professionals, community agents, in addition to the Civil Defense itself.
The forecast is for more rain in the coming hours, with the risk of further landslides. According to the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts for Natural Disasters (Cemaden), in its forecast of geo-hydrological risks for this Saturday, “the possibility of the occurrence of mass movement events in the Serrana Region of Rio de Janeiro remains very high, especially in Petrópolis, due to the high accumulated precipitation in the last 72 hours and in the last weeks”.
funds
The governor of Rio de Janeiro sanctioned this Thursday (17) the bill that approved, in the Legislative Assembly of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), a donation of R$ 30 million for the city of Petrópolis. With this, the financial allocations of the legislatures reach R$ 79 million.
Expected rain for a month
The coordinator of the National Center for Monitoring and Alerts for Natural Disasters (Cemaden), meteorologist Marcelo Seluchi, told CNN that rain in Petropolis on Tuesday (15) was the largest recorded in the history of the city.
Records began to be made in 1932.
In just six hours, 260mm of rain was recorded – most of it 230mm in three hours. This was expected for the entire month for the city. The damage is greater because the storm was very concentrated in the center of the city.
For the professor at the Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo (USP) Pedro Cortês, “unfortunately, this tragedy may be just beginning”.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday (17), the specialist warned of the forecast of increased rainfall in the region this weekend. “There should be a strong action by the public power to remove these people to prevent them from dying, because new landslides may occur as a result of these rains”, he evaluated.
The professor considers that the tragedy in Petrópolis is even worse than the occurrence of an earthquake, since in the mountainous region of Rio, “the situation remains due to the occurrence of new rains and the difficulty in removing these people who are in risk”.
In 2017, a risk reduction plan was concluded in the city of Petrópolis; according to the study, more than 15,000 homes were in high or very high risk areas.
Theopratique geotechnical engineer, Luiz Carlos Dias de Oliveira, one of those responsible for the project, told CNNlast Thursday, that the actions proposed in the study would mitigate the risks in the hills region of the city.
* Layane Serrano, Vinícius Tadeu, Leandro Resende, Tiago Tortella and Anna Gabriela Costa, from CNN, contributed to this report
Source: CNN Brasil
