Search for survivors, despair in Brazil amid dam collapse
- At least 37 people have been killed, but number expected to increase as rescue and recovery teams get to hardest hit areas
Brazilian officials on Sunday resumed the search for hundreds of missing people in the wake of a massive dam collapse, with firefighter crews returning to mud-covered areas after a several-hour suspension over fears that a second dam was at risk of breach.
Authorities evacuated several neighbourhoods in the southeastern city of Brumadinho that were within range of the B6 dam owned by the Brazilian mining company Vale. An estimated 24,000 people were told to get to higher ground, but by the afternoon, civil engineers said the second dam was no longer at risk.
Areas of water-soaked mud appeared to be drying out, which could help firefighters get to areas previously unreachable.
“Get out searching!” a woman yelled at firefighters near a refuge set up in the centre of Brumadinho. “They could be out there in the bush.”
On Sunday, authorities lowered the confirmed death toll to 37 from 40, giving no explanation, though that number was expected to increase as rescue and recovery teams got to the hardest hit areas.
Even before the half-day suspension of rescue efforts, hope that loved ones had survived a tsunami of iron ore mine waste from Friday’s dam collapse in the area was turning to anguish and anger over the increasing likelihood that many of the hundreds of people missing had died.