Collapse of Brazilian dam: bodies removed from toxic mud while hope fades for survivors News from around the world

TThe dirt road that once led to the Nova Estância guest house and a handful of neighboring farms now ends with a series of sticky, bitter sludge that extends as far as the eye can see, a red notch. deep crossing the green of the Brazilian countryside.

The road, a small bridge that she had once crossed, the guest house and hundreds of people were swallowed by the mud when a dam of residues at the mine Córrego de Feijão collapsed Friday, causing a torrent of liquid waste.

As the day came up, a Red Cross team carried another body in a bag through the devastated landscape and gently set it down by the roadside to pick it up.

Three days after what seems to be the worst environmental disaster Brazil has ever suffered, Red Cross rescuer Walter Moraes said the victim was "apparently" a man. "He's already in decomposition," he said.

Hundreds of other bodies remain buried. Finding the missing victims is an almost impossible challenge for the rescue teams: the disaster sent 11.7 cubic meters of mine waste into the valley, flooding the houses and leaving a sea of ​​mud coagulating up to 8 meters (26 feet) ) depth. in certain places.

Up to now, 60 bodies have been found near Brumadinho, in the state of Minas Gerais. But, Monday afternoon, 292 people were still missing – and hope to see survivors disappear quickly. No one has been out alive from the disaster area since Saturday.

Frustrated by official relief efforts, some locals have started looking for the bodies themselves, said 23-year-old Petterson Chaves., who remained to watch nearby. "People can not sit there waiting for their friends and family," he said. "They are there to hunt [for them]. "

Elisabeth Reis, 49, a cook in the open pit mining complex where the 86m-high waste rock dams collapsed on Friday afternoon, unleashes the devastating red wave.

Reis was working in the canteen of the site, full of workers having lunch at the time of the disaster. Just last week, she told her family that she wanted to leave her job at the end of the year after paying off a car loan and completing her roof. "She was afraid the dam would fail," he said.

The Brumadinho disaster occurred only three years after the collapse of another tailings dam, near the city of Mariana, also in Minas Gerais. This disaster killed 19 people, polluted drinking water to hundreds of thousands of people and sent mud hundreds of kilometers from the sea. No one has ever been found guilty of any responsibility for the disaster of Mariana.

The Mariana dam belonged to a joint venture between BHP Billiton and the Brazilian mining company Vale, which also owns the Brumadinho dam. The people simply can not believe that the same thing happened again: another dam of tailings in the same state.

Jane Luzzi, 51, escaped very hard when the mud pbaded through her rural community of Parque de Cachoeira, taking the house where she made snacks. No siren sounded to warn her: instead, she received a breathless voice message via WhatsApp from her owner.

"Jane," shouted his owner. "The dam broke out. Get out of there quickly, in the name of Jesus!

Luzzi seized her husband, Nilton de Freitas, 64, and they ran away shouting at the neighbors. Now all that was left was in a plastic bag at his feet.

Under the hot afternoon sun, Luzzi's anger subsided. "They think people under this dam are insects," she said. "Where are the United Nations? Where are the people who work with human rights? "

Officials have not yet determined why the dam failed, but Attorney General Raquel Dodge promised to launch an investigation. "Someone is really at fault," she said.

Before the disaster, the river that crossed the Parque de Cachoeira was bathed in crystal clear water, clear enough to allow the fish to swim, said Adriano Souza, a builder and painter from the area who helped to hunt the corpses.

His cell phone was filled with sinister videos and broken body images in the mud, with a child covered in mud that had been saved alive.

Souza was watching a rescue helicopter hovering above the acidic mud. "If we are in contact with her, we must wash and wipe ourselves with alcohol," Souza said.

As the sun set on the trees, three young men dug into the mud to signal a human leg that they had found. A police helicopter descended and an officer in green overalls marked his location as a striped pole.

"We found two bodies today," said Afonso Ferreira, 20, while he was trotting out, bare legs in a red grime. "You can not recognize them."

Up-close, the mud irritates the eyes and throat due to the high pH of iron ore mining waste, said Mark Macklin, a professor of physical geography at the University of Lincoln, who studied disasters on dams of tailings for decades and is director of the university. new center of water and global health.

Residents described the dying fish in the nearby Paraopeba River, while others aired videos on cell phones showing fish rising from the water to strike the banks.

"The fish will suffocate because of the very heavy sediment loads in the river that simply prevent the fish from breathing. They are dying for lack of oxygen, "Macklin said.

"There were a lot of dead fish, suffocating fish, fish jumping out of the water. I've lived here for 58 years and I've never seen a scene like this, "said Ouvido Gomes, 68, a carpenter.

Added to this is the fact that some residents had already protested against the dams that they thought might collapse.

Bruna Coelho, an unemployed biologist who grew up in the area and aged 31, took part in some of the protests. "We were very worried, especially after Mariana. Everyone living near the tailings dams was worried, "she said.

Until now, Vale has denied any suggestion that the company could take a share of responsibility in the Brumadinho disaster. During interviews, Vale's chief executive, Fábio Schvartsman, called the tragedy an accident.

"Vale sees no decisive reason for his responsibility. There was no negligence, carelessness, malpractice, "said Sérgio Bermuda, Vale's lawyer, at the Folha newspaper in São Paulo.

Vale quickly moved to distance itself from comments. "Vale states that it has not allowed any third parties, including contract lawyers, to speak on its behalf," said the company in a statement released Monday, noting that it would continue to contribute to investigations and support affected families.

Marina Silva, former environment minister and presidential candidate, said the congress should be partly responsible for the non-hardening of the regulation and its application.

"All the warnings have been given. We are repeating the story with this tragedy, "she told The Associated Press. "Brazil can not become a specialist in rescuing victims and comforting widows. Steps must be taken to prevent this from happening again. "