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It was around 12:30. Vera Souza Araújo Vilaça, aged 64, had just arrived at Geraldo's, a 90-year-old man who walks with the help of a walker. It had been almost two years since she had climbed the 500 meters that separated her farm from Geraldo's to bring her lunch, a neighborhood affability.
It was a beautiful and peaceful day, like most days in Parque da Cachoeira, a district of the rural area of Brumadinho (MG). The landscape in the background was that of a very green valley, where ran a small stream. The noise was that of the fields: birds, chickens, cows, water mines, the wind that crossed the valley.
Until the appearance of the boy, tenant of the country of Geraldo, bringing the alarm of the tragedy. He quickly carried the nonagenarian from there.
A year earlier, Geraldo, a long-time resident of the area, had predicted for Vera during the prose that followed the lunch delivery: "If one day the dam breaks, all that disappears here, it does not nothing remains. "
Vera and her husband, also called Geraldo, had never seen the Vale Dam, located about seven kilometers away. But the old man had badured them: he was very tall, and if he broke, he would go all over the valley, destroy all the houses and kill all those who were ahead.
After the warning cry of the boy who had come to save Geraldo, Vera turned to look at his house in the distance.He was located on the same hill, but very below, so an area more exposed to the avalanche and less safe. There, her husband was waiting for lunch and her brother would take a nap.
To reach them and warn them of dam failure, Vera should make the opposite path of an emergency exit: instead of going to a high place, take a path that would surely be touched.
She did not hesitate for a moment: she rushed to save her family, risking being swallowed by the mud en route.
"I pbaded under a barbed wire fence, I crossed a four meter footbridge (a plank deck covering a water plane, with a bamboo balustrade, where the population was pbading slowly and cautiously I do not know where my strength has come from, so far my nerves in my leg are hurting me, "said Vera, who retired due to her disability due to thrombosis and , in recent years, has broken his leg three times.
 /i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2019/S/6/zZHs8fTaavh29ojS7TPw/image003.jpg "Chácara de Vera et Geraldo ont été emportés par le flot de boue - Photo: ARCHIVAGE PERSONNEL")
Chácara got in motion and started to protect himself from the red color PERSONAL ARCHIVES
Vera arrived before the avalanche. Manuel Souza Araújo, 57, who slept on the ranch, woke up screaming. ran to the house
"The dam broke down!", he cried to his husband, Geraldo do Carmo Vilaça, 70 years old. "He was sitting at the lunch table and was waiting, silent.If I had not gone (to warn him), the mud had caught him," he says. .
After Vera's warning, "it was time to get up and run away, we had 3 minutes, we had no time, the avalanche was already 100 or 50 meters from our house, "says Geraldo. By that time, the mud had already invaded the dining room and the administrative area of the valley and eliminated Pousada Nova Estância. Now he was approaching the neighborhood of Parque Cachoeira.
Geraldo opened the garage door and opened the car. Meanwhile, Vera anticipated the escape, running down a steep street in order to reach the summit. But the key to the car was lost in the stew. "I did not have time to watch, I just had to run," Geraldo recalls.
From left to right, Manuel (who is missing), Valda (Vera's daughter), granddaughter of Vanda, a friend of the Vera and Geraldo family in front of the destroyed house – Photo: PERSONAL ARCHIVES
He lifted them eyes and saw that the woman was going to be able to escape. But in the opposite direction, he began to hear the terrifying sound of the coming precipitation.
"It's a scary sound: the mud overturns a big tree, breaks tiles, drives home, by car," says Geraldo. "It's a horror movie sound," says the woman.
Then Geraldo realized that he could no longer escape the same path as the woman – the mud would arrive before reaching the top of the street. In a few seconds, he made the decision: to rush into a closed forest behind his house, which was also in a high and safe place.
"I ran a climb of about 120 meters, without stopping." I looked like a 17-year-old boy.But I'm 70. I think that's what I thought 39; is the instinct of survival.When I am tired, I stopped in a tree to rest.And I listened If it happened, I should overcome fatigue and run higher. "[19659025] Vera and Geraldo were both safe, each at its peak. From where they were, they saw the flood of the dam take away everything that they had built throughout their lives.
The mud has swallowed the house, the car, the orchard, the kitchen garden, the 50 chickens, the dogs, the documents, the photo albums of the youth and the children. In a few seconds there was nothing left. Today, everything is under 10 meters of mud. The valley does not exist anymore. The land was leveled by Vale's iron ore tailings.
Although worried one for the other, Vera and Geraldo felt that both had managed to save themselves. After the mud went through Waterfall Park, he headed for the top of the slope where his wife was. To see the living husband was a huge commotion. "We are both born again," says Vera.
One person was missing: Vera's brother, Manuel. The couple's expectation was that he had fled in another way, like Geraldo, and eventually appeared. But that did not happen. His name is on the list of missing – this Monday, there are 279 people.
Three days after the tragedy, Vera loses all hope of finding her brother alive. "If the siren had hit, we would have a lot more time to escape." "We could have helped Manuel to force him out, but we only had time to run in.
" What I will miss in my old life is Manuel, the material goods n not import, I just wanted to be able to save my brother, just as I was able to save my husband. without anything else, "said Vera, very excited
a neighboring town – he, employee of the Minas Gerais sanitation company, she, a maid, wanted to have a vegetable garden, an orchard and rearing chickens
At first they did not even know that there was a mining dam nearby. Far less imagined that this could be a place of risk, the route through which waste would pbad in the event of a disturbance. After all, in Parque da Cachoeira, there were no press releases, plaques, meetings with residents to deal with the issue, and no emergency evacuation plans. There was only the valley, from where no part of the Córrego do Feijão mine could be seen.
Therefore, even when the Mariana tragedy occurred in 2015, Vera and Geraldo were worried. Neither they nor most of the neighbors.
Until 2018, this quiet climate was broken: Vale began installing siren towers near Cachoeira Park. "The sirens have been warned to break the dam, so that they even escape," Geraldo says. One of them was placed right in front of the couple 's land, on the other side of the valley, about 500 meters. So every time they left the house, they saw the relief pole about 12 meters high.
 / i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2019/o/6/w1ATwcRQmwr4sojtAwjg/image006.jpg "L'image enregistrée lundi montre que la boue a déjà commencé à se durcir aux extrémités. Cependant, dans le centre, où se trouvaient la maison de Geraldo et Vera, elle est encore molle - Photo: VANDACÉLIA S ARAÚJO")
Image recorded and in the center, where were the house of Geraldo and Vera, it is still sweet – Photo: VANDACÉLIA S ARAÚJO
Shortly after the installation of sirens, employees of the mining company began to visit homes in the area to apply a "
C & # 39; s is there that the couple understood: "If it is for running, is there anyone in the house with a locomotion problem, an elderly person? ", the lower part of Cachoeira Park was on the way to the dam What could be a quiet life could turn into a nightmare.
Vera then went to talk to her 90-year-old neighbor, Geraldo, to find out what was going on. He was thinking about the situation, the answer given, that the dam was big and dangerous, made it quieter, and every day I was thinking about the danger of dam failure. it would happen at night when everyone was asleep
"I would say to him: Geraldo, I'm not more satisfied here, we could look for another accommodation. All I do, I remember this dam.
"Vera always told us to leave, but it was not easy to get out of there, it takes a lifetime to build your house, because the person who has few resources builds slowly. where is it ready and you have to leave everything out because you have a barrage threat? "" It's not easy, "Geraldo says.
Sirens and questionnaires alarmed the entire community. To try to calm the atmosphere, in the middle of last year, a meeting was planned between Vale and the inhabitants of Parque da Cachoeira, on the football field of the neighborhood. The miner even set up a tent on the site and posted slides on a projector with information on the dams, according to information provided by locals.
Adilson Chavez Ramos and Ademir Caricati, President and Vice President of the Local Residents' Association, Acopapa, report that Vale's representatives present at the meeting tried to rebadure the community: had no risk of disturbance. They could be rebadured – the proof would be that the premises of the company itself were just after the dam.
Alderman Juliano Lopes of Belo Horizonte was present at the meeting. Chairman of the council's environmental commission, he intended to elect a state deputy that year and had the support of the community. "The population asked a lot of questions, but Vale said that she was too worried and that it was not necessary, after all everything was monitored."
After the episodes of the sirens, questionnaires and the meeting, Vale disappeared from Cachoeira Park, said Geraldo and Vera. "After all that, I imagined they would train the locals, create a flight plan, sound the sirens to see what it was, but Vale was no longer showing, this siren never touched, I do not did not even know the sound, "he says.
From then on, "the only news we have about Vale is a little newspaper that they started delivering to their homes every month, they published the good things that Vale was doing. ", he says ironically.
If Vale had left the area, Geraldo thought then that this should mean that there was no danger. "I thought that if I had a real and imminent risk, Vale would have continued to do prevention.As the staff disappeared, I did not go back there anymore, I thought I was safe."
Vera insisted that they leave. They have talked so much about the issue that they have even traced a way of imaginary escape.
"I would say, if the dam bursts, I climb the slope, if I arrive at Sandra do Lúcio's house, I'm saved." Geraldo says, "Well, that's not the case with the forest," she recalls. "And at that moment, we walked exactly in that direction, I went up the street and him through the bush."
The life that lay under the mud
Save life, but lose it all. And then what to do? Geraldo only had his shorts, slippers and t-shirt. Vera, the blouse, the shorts, the shoe. This Friday afternoon, after the dam broke, the couple had to turn their back on their usual place of residence for 12 years and go away. With them, anxiety: what happened to Manuel?
The first night, they slept in the house of one of the girls of Vera's first marriage. But the next morning they decided to return to Parque da Cachoeira, after Vera's brother had signaled. Nothing
Brumadinho also distributed other members of his family in search of news of him. Without success. Vera is not satisfied: if she had touched the mermaid, her brother could be among them.
"I think Vale was not worried about people, I think I'm worried about complying with the legislation, do you have to make a mermaid?" Then they put the siren in. "There was really a concern for people, preparing for an evacuation." And warned people in time to escape, "says Geraldo.
For him, Vale does not want to see it. has not protected its employees either. "How can you place the refectory in the lower part of the dam? Where did he go? ", He continues, the refectory and the administrative area of the mining company were the first affected by the dam's residues that broke it. Lunch time, they were full.Most of the victims were there.
"From now on, the most important thing is that [les entreprises] be forced to adopt a new position in order to "Avoid new disasters." Minas Gerais is a mining state with dozens of tailings dams, do not change the posture, it will happen again, "says Geraldo.
On his return to the neighborhood Saturday morning, Geraldo also wanted to resume the escape route with one of his sons. "This is the place where my father ran to escape the tidal stream, it's a hill, it's at the foot of his house, it's a closed forest, his chance was he knew more or less the way, "he said. Cléber, the son, in a video recorded by mobile phone.
At the end of the trip, they saw where the farm was. "There is no more house, she was buried, there is no trace, it's a sea of mud, just because of the calculation we made, he must have a depth of 10 meters, "says Geraldo.
Among so many sorrows, a little joy: on the way back to Cachoeira Park, Vera and Geraldo found Nilza, one of the couple's bitches. She had been rescued by firefighters, completely muddy and hosted by a neighborhood family.
"She was very happy to see me and see her!" Exclaimed Vera with a big smile. "She is a survivor!" "Take it easy, I'll take care of it, you'll look for it when you can," said the hostess. Nilza should wait. For the moment, life had to be reorganized.
Also in Brumadinho, the Vilaça family went to a Vale building and announced that she had lost everything. Logo, pbad to receive atendimento da mineradora. "What do you want to do?" "What do you want to do?" "At the end of the day, we are looking forward to seeing you," said Geraldo.
Dante de um novo caso of desabrigados pela lama, a mineradora os encaminhou para um hotel. Porém, não em Brumadinho or nas cidades vizinhas, mas em Belo Horizonte, but has 50 quilômetros de distância. Assim, esfos filhos precisam, is being set up at the capital mineira para visita-los.
You will have Vera e Geraldo ficam em um hotel. A tranca da porta, toda moderna, incomoda: "A gente é caipira, não sabe direito como funciona essas coisas", diz Vera, dando risada.
Em vez da tranquilidade do vale, os novos hóspedes agora convivem com o barulho de automóveis ate tarde da noite, than at hospedagem fica em uma larga avenida no bairro da Gameleira. At paisagem erida, sem verde.
Os novos vizinhos são os mesmos do Parque da Cachoeira. Praticamente todo o segundo andar do hotel está preídido por famílias that tiveram as casas destruídas. Em outros andares, também há but famílias atingidas pelo rompimento da barragem. Mas os hóspedes têm dificuldade para visitar quém está em outro piso, peas o elevador precisa ser ativado com um cartão que só dá acesso ao próprio andar.
Os quartos são pequenos, mas comfortáveis. "O hotel é òtimo, não tem nada que reclamar, O problema é a ficha cair", diz Geraldo.
"Nossa vida era em uma chácara de ga millet metros quadrados, com uma series of atividades.Agora, é só um apartamentozinho nesse hotel.A gente está aqui aguardando o que vai acontecer". Cuidar do pomar, da horta, das flores, das galinhas, colher ovos, fazer comida mineira no fogão a lenha, entregar almoço na casa do velho Geraldo, nada disso fará but parte da rotina.
"A cabeça não está boa, O meu irmão continued desaparecido, Então a gente fica sem dorm", fala Vera. Na madrugada de sábado, at 2 o'clock, when estavam pegando no sono, tocou o telefone no quarto: "chegou doação, venham receber", dizia a voz do outro lado da linha. Ao chegarem ao lobby do hotel, a doação que restava era uma embalagem com garrafas de água de meio litro.
Outras doações chegaram em horários but adequate. A felicidade of Vera e Geraldo faith ter conseguido pares de tnisi. They pretendem em breve come to caminhar em volta do hotel. "Não dá para ficar aqui o tempo todo".
Do futuro, ainda não sabem nada. "Agora, todos os esforços tem que ser em Brumadinho A gente fica esperando aqui", fala Geraldo.
E depois? "A gente espera um local para morar e a mobília da casa, já que perdemos tudo.I had acredito que é só isso, porque o valor emocional do que a gente perdeu nunca vai be recuperado", diz Geraldo.
"Mas, pelo menos, a gente vai poder sair desse quarto Ter um lugar com um pouco mais de liberdade.E levar a Nilza", fala Vera. "O problema que está estamos velhos." Não sei vai dar tempo recuperar o que perdemos. "
ROMPIMENTO OF BARRAGEM EM BRUMADINHO
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