Six people are still missing after the tragedy caused by the rains in the city of São Sebastião, on the north coast of São Paulo. At this time, the Fire Department is continuing its search for these victims in Vila do Sahy, where there was a landslide and the burial of houses and people.
According to the government of São Paulo, 59 deaths have been confirmed so far, 58 in São Sebastião and a child in Ubatuba. Fifty-four bodies have already been identified and released for burial. There are 19 men, 17 women and 18 children.
The city hall of São Sebastião informed that there are 1,095 people currently housed in schools, kindergartens, churches and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The São Paulo government informs that the rains left 2,251 people homeless and 1,815 homeless across the north coast.
searches
In a bulletin published this Saturday morning (25), the city hall of São Sebastião reported that the searches are concentrated in the most likely place to find these bodies, according to the assessment of the Fire Department. The expectation of the municipality was that the victims would be found today. Firefighters, in turn, did not give a forecast for the end of work on site.
“Today we enter the seventh day of operation after the occurrence and, at this moment, we have a single work front. Until yesterday we had three fronts and today we closed with a single point, where, possibly, these missing victims are located, who were indicated by family members and nearby residents”, said the spokesman for the Fire Department, Captain Maycon Cristo, in an interview this saturday at TV Brazil.
He points out that searches only end when the last body is found. “It only ends when we remove the last victim that is being sought, who has been reported missing. Once that is over, there are still many other steps to be taken involving the city hall, governments, various secretariats and that will not end so soon ”, he added.
Still according to the spokesperson, at this moment, the greatest difficulty they encounter in the searches is logistics. “We have a very large volume of rubble, earth, mud and trees that have come down the hill and we need to move all of that. We need to take it from the place where these victims possibly are and take it to another point. And for that, we need to be able to access the site with trucks and machinery. This work of moving this mass is what is causing the most difficulty for us at the moment”, explained the captain.
back to school
Due to the tragedy caused by the rains, the city hall of São Sebastião decided to postpone the start of classes and other teaching activities in the municipal public network until March 6th. The alteration of the school calendar is due to the state of public calamity that was decreed by the municipal government due to the heavy rains that hit the city last Sunday (19). Schools are being used to receive families that have been displaced and homeless or for voluntary actions, such as food distribution.
Tragedy
The rains that hit the municipalities of the north coast of São Paulo during Carnival, such as the city of São Sebastião, resulted in one of the greatest tragedies in the history of the state. It was the highest rainfall that is registered in the country, reaching the mark of 682 millimeters in Bertioga and 626 millimeters in São Sebastião.
* In collaboration with TV Brasil reporter Lincoln Chaves.
