Rains in RS: dam collapse generated wave 2 meters high, says mayor

In an interview with CNN the mayor of Bento Gonçalves (RS), Diogo Segabinazzi Siqueira, stated that the collapse of the 14 de Julho dam, which occurred on Thursday afternoon (2), generated a wave approximately 2 meters high in the affected region.

“It was a wave of around 2 meters that passed through these communities [vizinhas]. This wave is now heading towards the municipalities of São Valentim do Sul and Santa Tereza. Imagine the following: a wave came with great speed and destroyed everything in front of it”, said the mayor.

Siqueira stated that, due to the difficulty in accessing parts of the municipality that were affected by the water, he still does not have accurate information about victims and the damage caused.

“We still don’t have full information about everything that’s happening. We have reports. What we have to do is warn people in the closest regions and carry out a total evacuation of the areas covered by the river.”

“If city halls can inform all their residents, we will be able to avoid a major tragedy. We have to be very quick now,” she warned.

The mayor spoke about the difficulty in accessing the affected areas. “We can't get there by car or helicopter, because there are no weather conditions for the flight. We are doing it by step: entering landslides, taking an extremely risky path for our security forces to try to rescue these families”, he detailed.

The guideline for the population in risk areas, according to the mayor, is to move to the highest areas of the municipality. “You have to go up, go to a higher area. Climb at least 4 meters high”, he reinforced.

According to the mayor, the city had never experienced an incident of this magnitude. “We are experiencing a chaos of landslides on all the roads. Families were buried, houses were buried here in our region. It is not a simple flood that is happening here in Serra Gaúcha: it is something that has never been seen before.”