Hundreds feared dead in Brazilian dam disaster as death toll reaches 58 and 300 people still missing are ‘unlikely to be alive’
- The official death toll currently stands at 58 although it is warned this could rise
- Rescuers announced on Sunday there was ‘very low hope’ of finding any others
- Around 300 people are still missing after the dam collapsed near Brumadinho
Around 300 people still missing after a dam collapse in Brazil last week are now feared dead as rescuers warned Sunday they are ‘unlikely to be alive’.
So far 58 people have been officially confirmed to have died in the disaster which took place when a dam collapsed on Friday last week near the Brazilian city of Brumadinho.
Rescuers said on Sunday evening there was ‘very low hope’ that those still missing will now be found alive.
‘After 48 hours of work, the chance of finding [someone] alive is very low,’ Col Eduardo Angelo, who is leading the search operation, told relatives of the missing.
Aerial view of rail bridge taken down by a mudslide after the dam collapse near the Brazilian city of Brumadinho on Friday
Nearly 300 people are still missing, with the list of those unaccounted for being constantly updated. Most of those lost are presumed dead, officials said
A group of firefighters pulls out a body during the search and rescue efforts on Sunday morning
‘[But] we’re working with the possibility that we’ll find people alive.’
Rescue operations were suspended for 10 hours on Sunday amid fears a second damn could collapse in the area causing mud slides similar to the initial incident.
An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground because of the danger, but by afternoon civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.
Friday’s collapse buried mine buildings and surrounding neighborhoods with iron ore waste and has left around 300 workers unaccounted for.
In an ominous sign, nobody was recovered alive Sunday, a stark difference from the first two days of the disaster, when helicopters were whisking people from the mud.
Firefighters could be seen carefully moving over treacherous mud, sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, in search of survivors yesterday.
Members of rescue team carry a body recovered from beneath the mud after a landslide following the dam collapse
The slow speed of search efforts was due to the treacherous sea of reddish-brown mud that surged out when the mine dam breached Friday afternoon.
It is up 24 feet (8 meters) deep in some places, and to avoid the danger of sinking and drowning searchers had to carefully walk around the edges or slowly crawl out onto the muck.
Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable.
Brazilian searchers got reinforcements late Sunday, when more than 100 Israeli soldiers and other personnel arrived with plans to join recovery efforts.
Throughout the weekend, there was mounting anger at the giant Vale mining company, which operated the mine, and questions rose about an apparent lack of an alarm system Friday.
In an email, Vale told The Associated Press that the area has eight sirens, but ‘the speed in which the event happened made sounding an alarm impossible’ when the dam burst.
People in Brumadinho desperately awaited word on their loved ones. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said that by now most recovery efforts would entail pulling out bodies.
The Folia de S.Paulo newspaper reported Saturday that the dam’s mining complex was issued an expedited license to expand in December due to ‘decreased risk’
State fire department spokesman Pedro Aihara initially said 24,000 people would need to be evacuated, but later revised the number down to 3,000
The flow of waste reached the nearby community of Vila Ferteco and an occupied Vale administrative office. It buried buildings to their rooftops and an extensive field of the mud cut off roads.
Some residents barely escaped with their lives.
‘I saw all the mud coming down the hill, snapping the trees as it descended. It was a tremendous noise,’ said a tearful Simone Pedrosa, from the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira, 5 miles (8 kilometers) from where the dam collapsed.
‘I don’t think he is alive,’ Joao Bosco said of his cousin Jorge Luis Ferreira, who worked for Vale. ‘Right now, I can only hope for a miracle.’
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Before and after pictures show the devastation of Brazil dam…
Dramatic moment woman is pulled from the mud by helicopter… -
At least seven people are dead and more than 200 people are…
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The carpet of mining waste also raised fears of widespread environmental contamination and degradation.
According to Vale’s website, the waste is composed mostly of sand and is non-toxic. However, a U.N. report found that the waste from a similar disaster in 2015 ‘contained high levels of toxic heavy metals.’
Over the weekend, courts froze about $3 billion from Vale assets for state emergency services and told the company to report on how they would help the victims.
Fears about another dam burst in Brumadinho triggered evacuation sirens in the town before dawn, but by afternoon officials said there was no risk and the evacuation was called off
Aerial view of a rail bridge taken down by a mudslide after the collapseof a dam at an iron-ore mine belonging to Brazil’s giant mining company Vale
Neither the company nor authorities had reported why the dam failed, but Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to investigate. ‘Someone is definitely at fault, she said.’
Dodge noted there are 600 mines in Minas Gerais alone that are classified as being at risk of rupture.
Another dam administered by Vale and Australian mining company BHP Billiton collapsed in 2015 in the city of Mariana in Minas Gerais, resulting in 19 deaths and forcing hundreds from their homes.
Considered the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history, that disaster left 250,000 people without drinking water and killed thousands of fish. An estimated 60 million cubic meters of waste flooded nearby rivers and eventually flowed into the Atlantic Ocean.
Environmental groups and activists said the latest spill underscored the lack of environmental regulation in Brazil, and many promised to fight any further deregulation.
Marina Silva, a former environmental minister and presidential candidate, toured the area Sunday. She said Congress should bear part of the blame for not toughening regulations and enforcement.
‘All the warnings have been given. We are repeating history with this tragedy,’ she told the AP. ‘Brazil can’t become a specialist in rescuing victims and consoling widows. Measures need to be taken to avoid prevent this from happening again.’
Firefighters help a cow get out of the mud during the search and rescue work of the victims of the horrific dam burst
Firefighters resumed their search for the missing on Sunday, hours after it was suspended over fears that a second dam owned by the same company could rupture
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