The Minister of Integration and Regional Development, Waldez Góes, stated this Thursday (26) that the priority of the Civil Defense teams’ work remains in rescuing victims and helping homeless people displaced by the floods that hit the Zona da Mata in Minas Gerais.
Góes highlighted that the government is also working on actions to restore essential services, mobility, urban cleaning and reconstruction of cities.
“The response to the disaster now is to assist people, search for the missing, rescue, take care of homeless people, work to restore public services and from there rebuild the damage caused” stated the minister in an interview with Voice of Brazil.
To date, the tragedy has 59 deaths in the municipalities of Juiz de Fora, Ubá and Matias Barbosa. Search and rescue operations are concentrated on eight fronts, six in Juiz de Fora and two in Ubá, which are nearby municipalities.
The National Civil Defense has already recognized the state of public calamity in Juiz de Fora and, briefly, in the cities of Ubá and Matias Barbosa. Subsequently, the federal government released more than R$3 million for servicing and rebuilding the cities.
Góes lamented the lives lost and reaffirmed the government’s commitment to helping municipalities to restore essential services.
“The only thing we can’t do is give people their lives back, so we’re going to work hard to carry out searches and until we have everything resolved, with bridges rebuilt, roads, communication reestablished, energy and everything necessary” he added.
