The deluge in the night. Skies let loose. A thundering rain. The din of the storm and raging water. Sections of hill collapsed. The rivers of mud that nothing can resist: trees, houses, pets, cars. Cries of despair in the darkness. And then, at dawn, desolation. An enchanting devastated. Lacerated the mountain, its red raw wounds.The bodies buried in a shroud of clay. The startling discovery of the deadliest natural disaster in the history of modern Brazil: 677 victims, according to a latest report, which always gets heavier. The vast majority of surprise in their sleep. Some rare footage of comfort. One child from 6 months, Nicolas, escaped unharmed from the mud with his father who had hugged him for fifteen hours.
A mother saved by a rope thrown by a neighbor. The sequence will loop on TV. For all others, the pain and grief. In the meantime, perhaps, after the shock, thinking, bitterness or anger. Tropical nature rage is responsible initial disaster, on the night of January 12, afflicts the region Serrana (mountain) in Rio de Janeiro, some 100 kilometers from the metropolis, including the towns of Nova Friburgo and Teresopolis , epicenter of the tragedy.
Heavy rains usually punctuate the austral summer, a storm to another. Thick clouds are wont to congregate in the south-eastern Brazil, and sometimes linger too, by pouring their torrents. This time, captives of relief, they seemed to harp on the valleys and hills where many Cariocas take refuge in this season to escape the sweltering heat of Rio.
In twenty-four hours, he fell more water than any January moderately watered. The sky, however, is less at fault than the man. There is no end to inventory the many failures that led to tragedy. The forecast? Brazil lack of weather radar capable of locating a potential danger with finesse.
In Rio, a mega-computer being installed, will fill this gap next year, we are assured. Weather alerts were launched, but too vague and too soft. They stated "the accumulation of moderate to heavy rains. Civil Defense, where it exists - in less than a ten municipality - has fed back to councils concerned.
His message seems to have lost then. No one ever thought in any case to prevent the population. It gets worse. Unfortunate legacy of decades of uncontrolled urban growth, land use in areas at risk is an affront to nature and common sense. "It is unfortunately more the rule than the exception," observed the President, Dilma Rousseff, flying over the ravaged countryside.
According to an official figure, 5 million Brazilians live in such areas. The family poverty and poor public transport forced many to stay anyhow, anywhere, on or near their workplace. For example, on hillsides, also scattered in the area of tourism, second homes or hostels. Misfortune has struck rich and poor together.
Improvidence accompanies and worsens other errors, administrative or environmental: too many houses were built along rivers, and the riparian vegetation that could tear the flood protection, some streets, too concrete, contradict the flow of rain, the sewage drainage is poor, the gutters are clogged with garbage.
This new tragedy, like others in the past illustrates the criminal negligence of some elected officials. By demagoguery or electoral interests, they left the concrete blight the hills, or even encouraged real estate speculation. The Brazilian government should, too, beat his breast in 2010, he has returned to municipalities that 40% of the money for programs to prevent natural disasters.
In this regard, the lack of political will prevails at all levels of the federal state. Prevention does not clutter the speeches of councilors, totally focused on immediate action, because it brings them little voice in elections. By his own admission, which honors the franchise, Brazil lacks a disaster recovery contingency plan.
In a document sent to the UN in November 2010, Brasilia admits he did not put in place any measures recommended to inform, educate and alert communities at risk. Not even the creation of a database or a website. In the aftermath of the disaster, an external consultant to the UN, Debarati Guha Sapir, a tantrum: "It's the 37th Landslide in Brazil in less than ten.
This country has almost one to manage natural hazard, and it can not. Imagine if he were also to face earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and hurricanes. Brazil is not Bangladesh. He has no excuse. " The tentative conclusion of this drama could return to the editor of the weekly Epoca: "We will not be a power of the" First World "as we accept, without doing anything, such tragedies." Email: Langellier @ bbc.
fr. Jean-Pierre Langellier Article published in the edition of 20.01.11
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