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We are facing a disaster, says secretary of Civil Defense on rains

As rains that reach the Bahia, completely flooding more than 30 cities and generating about 4,200 homeless people, constitute a disaster situation, said the national secretary of Civil Defense, Colonel Alexandre Lucas, in an interview with CNN this Sunday (26).

“We are facing a disaster, and the disaster depends on variables that we do not control. If the rains stop, the waters subside and we can free up resources to clean up the city and normalize activities, but if the rains continue to fall for many days, this risk situation will persist”, he says.

According to him, the focus at the moment has been on activities to shelter and help residents of areas affected by heavy rains. “It is important that we continue to monitor all this, making relief resources available to the population, the return to normality will depend on the climate situation”, he says.

Lucas says that each municipality must locate civil defense activities, and it is important that everyone has a command post, which acts as a “reference place for the community to seek help in each place”.

According to the secretary, cities with more robust civil defense can be contacted by the population through the telephone number 199 or 193.

Overseeing activities in the municipality of Ilhéus, which is being hit by the rains this Sunday, he said that the city already has more than 700 homeless, with 6,000 displaced, especially in rural areas.

“This rain is worrying because of the situation in the lower areas, which are already heavily punished, and it is necessary for people to leave these places before the waters rise. Self-protection measures are fundamental”, says Lucas.

When talking about the causes for the current scenario in Bahia, the secretary stated that “we have to think that cities in Brazil were built along rivers. The intense rains resulting from global warming make the waters rise a lot”.

“The alerts are for people to leave their homes and leave the risk areas before the problems occur, but there is no way to avoid excessive rain and flooding,” he said.

According to the secretary, warnings about the rains were previously issued, and now “what has to be worked is what the world recommends, risk management, and this involves issuing warnings, removing people before disasters occur to reduce urban damage, material and human and material damage”.

He believes that the heavy excess of rain would make any prevention work impossible. “We have to start getting used to it [chuvas mais intensas], because even took place in Germany, Europe recently, and it has happened all over the world”, he says.

Lucas said that federal government forces are already operating in the region, with teams from the Ministry of Health, Federal Highway Police, National Civil Defense and national force of the THEIR. “Forces, both federal and state, are arriving to support this situation.”

Reference: CNN Brasil

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