Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo floods January 2011
Gory images of a woman fighting for her life in Brazil appeared on our TV screens. Clinging to a rooftop of her fast-collapsing house, a virtual island in raging floodwaters, showed her holding onto her pet dog, determined not to leave without it. As most of the houses surrounding hers were already engulfed by the torrent, her only passage to safety was a rope thrown to her from a roof of a house seemingly on the banks of violent river descending down a steep hill. At first she clung to the pet, then smitten by a raging current of water and mud she let go of it in order to grasp the rope with both hands and get pulled to safety at last.
Days of heavy rains causing floods, devastating mudslides and enormous loss of life are nothing new in Brazil. The worst floods happen mostly in northeast of Brazil, from state of Maranhão to Pernambuco and Alagoas, but ravage the entire coastal parts of Brazil all the way south to Sao Paulo, not surprisingly effecting most often the poorest communities, and last year was no exception. Rio de Janeiro, city as well as state, too were last subjected to torrential rains causing immense mudslides and tragic loss of life only a few months ago. Undeniably in most instances the worst-hit are always the favelas, the neighborhoods of the poor, built on precarious hillsides, typically without any permits and with little if any attempt by the authorities to mitigate the lurking disasters. The floods of last few days in state of Rio de Janeiro and massive loss of life in its towns of Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo are yet another jolt pointing to the lack of disaster prevention and the harsh reality of poverty in Brazil in general.
Media reports of local residents anger over slow relief efforts, government did appropriate emergency aid for the devastated communities and victims and promises to being more forceful with enforcement of where people can built, but how soon and how substantial can the affected communities and victims expect turnaround in their plight remains to be seen. With summer season of carnivals around the corner, the tragedy of the latest floods will soon be replaced another story and all will likely soon return back to the reality of life in Brazil until the next rains. Images of ravaged towns with cars piled up against mountains of remains, corpses laid in makeshift morgues and fast erected grave sites will be replaced with clips of towns staging lavish parades and all night parties with residents all smiles.
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For now Brazil declared three days of national mourning for the 650 plus killed in namely Teresopolis and Nova Friburgo, though reports are not hiding that that the death toll is likely to climb much higher once the final assessment of the typically dense jungle of often half finished houses can actually be made. While Brazil has become one of the top economic powerhouses of the world, with its annual growth equal only to that of China, its currency currently possibly the strongest of all, the skyline of its towns, large and small, aside of its monuments we have learnt to instantly identify, remains to be that of shanty towns engulfing skyscrapers and islands of prosperity.
In light of hosting the 2014 Soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, when the world will really be watching, will the latest devastating floods spur yet more radical action by the new president to deal with all the harsh realities of life in Brazil?
