The tragedy that resulted in the death of 233 people in Petrópolis, a city in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, completes one month this Tuesday (15). The rain caused a series of landslides and floods in several parts of the municipality. Thirty days later, four people are still missing and the number of homeless reaches 685.
This was the worst rain recorded in Petrópolis since 1932, when the National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) began taking measurements. The total rainfall in three hours reached 258.6 millimeters. In 24 hours, it was 259.8 mm.
In other times, Petrópolis would be getting ready to celebrate 179 years next Wednesday (16). Today, however, the climate is not one of celebration, but of recovery from the city’s routine after the catastrophe.
This Monday (14), a Temporary External Committee of Petrópolis was installed in the Federal Senate. On the city’s anniversary, the parliamentarians will make a visit, with an overflight, to investigate the needs of the municipality. They also want to know about land suitable for housing construction in Petrópolis for the homeless population.
The commission will have 30 days to present a report that points out the possible causes of the disaster and propose public policies for prevention.
Searches for missing people continue
Since the day of the tragedy, the Fire Department has been working with teams to find missing people. Currently, there are about 60 soldiers a day searching two points: the Morro da Oficina, which was one of the most critical places, and the Piabanha, Quitandinha and Palatinato rivers.
Among the strategies to find victims, sniffer dogs, drones and excavators were used. There were 24 rescues, in addition to 300 animals pulled from the rubble alive.
In addition to the firefighters, many residents mobilized to find the four people who are still missing. Three are victims who were on the buses that were submerged. In images obtained by CNNit is possible to see passengers climbing on the roof of the vehicle and some being dragged by the current.
One of these people is little Pedro Henrique, 8 years old. He was with his mother returning from school on the day of the tragedy. Rafaela Braga managed to get off the bus and pulled the boy, but the current took her away from the vehicle. She was rescued, but the child has not yet been found.
“When the bus overturned, I managed to save my son, put my son on top of another bus, but I couldn’t stand firm. I was dragged by the current and managed to hold on to a branch that was much further ahead. Afterwards, the residents of the building threw a rope to help me and two others. And my son is missing. I couldn’t find it.”
The search group with about 20 people was created by Leandro Rocha, Gabriel’s father, 17 years old, who was on the same bus and went missing. All are residents of the city and were helping the student’s parents in the search. Even after Gabriel’s body was found, on the 24th, the group continued to search for the other victims who were in the collective.
“Our focus now is to find all three. We will not give up, we will find them. At least a dignified burial the family deserves. We know how painful it is”, said Luciana Ferreira, Gabriel’s mother.
There are still more than 600 homeless people in Petrópolis. Many had their homes torn down by the current. Others had to leave their homes because of the risk of collapse. The benefit of Rent Social, from the government of Rio de Janeiro to relocate people in this situation, has already been requested by almost 3,000 families.
However, the payment of R$ 1,000 will be made on the fifth business day of April. Of this total, the government of Rio will pay R$ 800 and the city will pay the other R$ 200.
Now, the bookstore is back up and running, but the basement, which used to be a storage room and an administrative office, is being renovated. To recover the cash, the store ran a campaign called ‘Buy +1’, so that all customers, in addition to purchasing your book, take an extra copy as a gift.
With around R$ 200 million in losses for the city’s shopkeepers, the state government also offered credit lines for self-employed, informal entrepreneurs, micro, small and medium-sized companies. Values range from BRL 10,000 to BRL 500,000. So far, 16,340 loans have been registered.
For the economist specialized in Public Administration at Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV) Istvan Kasznar, the prevention of new disasters is the first point for the resumption of the city. He emphasizes the need to invest in environmental education and in equipment that can help with the evacuation of risk areas.
“It is necessary to invest, of course, in elements that allow speed to avoid that the populations that must be evacuated in case of rain or perceptions of great storms can do it well. So, alarms, siren systems and others need to be placed in all these places, including and especially where we already know the population is”, explained the specialist.
Kasznar also stressed that the most important thing is not to make large investments, but that the public authorities be consistent in these issues and not just when there is a catastrophe.
“There is that question of investing 10% in education, 5% in health, or inverting these coefficients and so on. The fact is that the percentage itself may be much less important. It is essential that there is regularity in the allocation of civil construction resources to correctly place and channel rivers, streams, streams, ponds”, pointed out the economist.
Source: CNN Brasil
