The city Bahia suffered two major floods within a 20-day period. Marcelo Galvão, mayor of Ibicuí (BA), city affected by the forts rains and flooding in the state, told the CNN that the priority at the moment is to give “immediate help, with the objective of getting the families out of the risk area.”
He says that the last flood happened on the 24th, the day before Natal, and that this was “the biggest flood in the city’s history.”
“Many were out of their homes, the alert was given throughout the day, the Civil Defense informed us, we transmitted this to the entire city with alarms, and sometimes we do not believe in this potential for flooding”, he comments.
Galvão says that now the waters have subsided, but five days ago a river that crosses the city increased in volume and entered the houses.
“We didn’t have any fatal victims, but the damage is huge, it’s huge.”
According to the mayor, there is no prospect of raining again, however, the warning still remains.
Ibicuí has about 16 thousand inhabitants. According to Galvão, 2,400 people are directly affected, of which 1,420 are displaced.
The mayor of Ibicuí does not rule out the chances of other disasters. “We have to think a lot about this, about the possibility of other floods happening in the state and in homes that are in risk areas.”
For future actions, Galvão says he will need help from the federal administration.
“THE federal government it holds the greatest enjoyment of appeal and is a discussion that needs to be expanded. We are going to solve the problem now with help to these families, but the discussion needs to move forward”, he points out.
He also highlights that access to the city is still being affected, whether by a ravine that slides, or the road that is impassable. But that, not moment, “the city’s goal is to bring comfort to families.”
The mayor points out that assistance is coming through donations. “Ibicuí, in the first flood, received a resource of R$ 433 thousand to help these families, and this resource can only be spent on cleaning material, mattresses and food baskets.”
It even highlights the importance of the city in festive periods.
“I like to point out that Ibicuí is known as the city of São João, a very strong June period. People leave their homes to receive the revelers and at that moment our city needs to be welcomed.”
Asked about the city’s restructuring, Galvão points out that “the federal, state and municipal governments need to be united to discuss this promptly.”
According to him, “Ibicuí is a municipality that has the lowest conditions to do this, with very limited revenue. We depend on the federal and state government to do this [reconstruir a cidade] effectively.”
Reference: CNN Brasil
