The Civil Police of Minas Gerais reported that the search for victims of the rains in Juiz de Fora, in the Zona da Mata of Minas Gerais, is closed. The body of the last missing person, 9-year-old Pietro, was located on Saturday night (28), in the Paineiras neighborhood.
The number of deaths as a result of the rains reached 72 this Sunday morning (1st), according to an update from the state’s Civil Police. In total, 72 bodies were sent to the Legal Medical Institute (IML), 65 from Juiz de Fora and seven from Ubá. One person remains missing in Ubá, where the search will be intensified.
The Agência Brasil team was in Juiz de Fora last Friday (27). In the Paineiras neighborhood, a middle-class area with old mansions and residential buildings, residents were still outside their homes after the landslide that hit properties on Monday night (23). Civil Defense advised the families to evacuate due to the risk of new landslides, especially due to the instability on the slope of Morro do Cristo.
Morro do Cristo landslide hits the Paineiras neighborhood, in Juiz de Fora – Photo Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
Civil engineer Guilherme Belini Golver, currently unemployed, lives in a large house on the affected street, where he lives with his parents. He was not home at the time of the landslide, but realized the seriousness of the situation during the storm. : “When I got out, there was already a lot of water, it looked like a river, brownish in color. It was just like a river”, he reported. Guilherme left around 10:10 pm to pick up his daughter from college. About 20 minutes later, he received a call from a neighbor: “When he arrived outside, there was already this whole tragedy. The earth was invading the house, inside the gate, in the garage.”
Since then, the family has not been able to stay in the property.
“Civil Defense asked us to leave because they don’t know how serious it is, right? They don’t know if anything else could come from Morro do Cristo.”
A resident of the Paineiras neighborhood, Guilherme Gouveia helps clean up the mud brought by the landslide in Morro do Cristo. Photo: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
He has only returned to try to clean up the mud and keep an eye on the property, which was left vulnerable after the impact of the earth: “Clean it up, try to get rid of this mud. And also keep an eye on the house, which was left vulnerable. It was left open, we lost the lock.”
The engineer remembers that, around 40 years ago, small stones slid down the slope, which led to the installation of containments. “But that 40 years ago, they weren’t big stones. They were small.” Despite past experience, he admits his fear of new episodes. “Our minds get a little worried, that fear of it happening again.”
Houses and apartments are hit by the Morro do Cristo landslide in the Paineiras neighborhood, in Juiz de Fora – Photo Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
On the same street, a criminal police officer who had lived there for around four months died during the landslide. A few meters from Guilherme’s mansion, three residential buildings rented by the same family were also hit. Motoboy Paulo Barbosa Siqueira, 25, lives in one of the apartments. He was outside when the collapse occurred, around 10:50 p.m.
“At the time I had gone to pick up my sister from work because of the rain. When I turned around here to enter the building, everything had already fallen”, says Barbosa.
According to him, residents had to improvise an escape route between apartments to escape: “There were people who jumped from two apartments to be able to go to the other. Then we made our way. That’s it, we saved everyone. Nobody came to help us. Me and a military police officer took the path to save everyone.”
A neighbor, who worked as a criminal police officer, died in the episode. “We lost a police officer from our building.”, laments Paulo.
Rains in Juiz de Fora cause landslides in the Paineiras neighborhood – Photo Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
Since then, residents have been waiting for authorization to enter properties and remove documents and belongings. Access remains closed due to structural risk:
“We want to get the basics, documents, clothes. We are without anything, just in other people’s houses. We are wearing other people’s clothes. With nothing to eat.”
Paulo states that, until then, there was no formal position on the situation of the buildings: “So far the Defense has not given us an opinion, nor has the firefighter.”
He reports difficulties eating and sleeping since the tragedy. “Since the day of the event, I haven’t eaten, I haven’t been able to eat. We’re not even sleeping properly.”
Residents also report looting during the night in closed properties. “Because in the early hours of the morning, when people stop working, they come to steal and loot our building.
Residents report looting in closed properties – Photo Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil
The landslides in Paineiras hit two different points, on nearby streets. In one of them, where there are mansions and middle-class buildings, structural damage and one death occurred. On the next street, rescue teams worked intensely after reports of victims and disappearances, including the case of Pietro, 9 years old, found on Saturday.
