“I can not sleep, I can not eat, the pain is very strong”: Maria Lucia da Silva lives in Jardim Monteverde, one of the communities swept away by torrential rains, floods and mud landslides which claimed the lives of at least 91 people around Hessefi in northeastern Brazil.
The 56-year-old housewife left her house in time to avoid being overwhelmed by a mud landslide, but her neighbors were not so lucky: 11 members of the same family lost their lives, a 12th is still missing.
“I am very sad, it was like family to me. “I have lived here for forty years, I saw most of them growing up,” he explains.
“The 11 bodies found were buried (yesterday) in the afternoon, but they are still looking for my friend’s niece. She is 32 years old, at the age of my daughter “, continues the Afro-Brazilian, who wears sunglasses to hide her swollen eyes from crying.
“I can not say anything anymore, otherwise I will cry”, he apologizes between two sobs.
In Zardim Monteverde, a slum on a hillside on the outskirts of Hasifi, the state capital of Pernabuco, and in Zamboatau do Guararapes, dozens of firefighters continued yesterday despite heavy rain. searches for about 20 missing persons.
At the top of the hill, some houses were still standing, but at a distance of a few meters, one could see a real abyss, almost vertical, where a mud landslide swept everything in its path.
Masses of debris, shredded bricks, clothes, children’s toys, other atomic items rise victims…
“Like a tsunami”
Mario Guadalupe, 60, a retiree, has just escaped.
The landslide “almost hit my house. I saw them all, I know all those who are dead “, declares the mongrel with thick glasses and a gray mustache.
“At first I saw a piece of land receding, then it was like a tsunami. “The mud destroyed everything.”
In his humble home, which was miraculously saved, food is now stored for the victims.
“You can not say it as a pre-announced tragedy. “I have lived here for over forty years and I have never seen anything like it,” he says.
“It is definitely a phenomenon associated with global warming, because I have never seen so much rain in such a short time,” he said, expressing concern that similar tragedies would be repeated. “This is a warning for the coming winter” of the southern hemisphere, he estimates.
Meteorologists link the torrential rains that hit Pernabuco to what they call “eastern waves”, common at this time of year, with heavy clouds moving from the African continent to the Brazilian coast.
Within a few hours, on the night of Friday to Saturday, the state received a quantity of water equal to 70% of the precipitation that is usually recorded throughout May.
Although no one expected the tragedy, some residents are bringing the authorities to justice.
“A lot of people here have lost everything. Not just his house, his life! “We need medicine, we need food,” said Zilson Gomez de Souza, a 34-year-old builder.
“Jardim Monteverde is calling for help! “You can not come here just to campaign.”
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