 Rescue workers search for landslide victims in Nova Friburgo, Brazil. AP photo. |
Weary from days of steady rain, and bracing for severe thunderstorms predicted for Sunday, survivors of mudslides that have killed 611 in Brazil carried food, water and blankets to friends, neighbors and relatives still stranded in remote, stricken villages.
A slow stream of wet, muddy men and women, some in their bare feet, tied supermarket bags together and slung them over shoulders to carry basic provisions to those too frail to make the treacherous hike down to the city Saturday.
Promised government help was scarce; 11 helicopters sent to airlift those in need had difficulty flying through the low clouds and steady rain, and many of the police and national guard were occupied with keeping order, not delivering aid.
No help - food, water, medication - had reached the survivors in cut-off communities like Cascata do Imbui by Saturday other than the little residents could haul. Two avalanches wiped out the road, leaving in places only a cracked ribbon of asphalt perched over an abyss.
"This was a beautiful place. It was a happy place," Renato Motta de Lima said. Like many survivors, his emotions are muted. The loss is too great - Motta de Lima can't stop to think. If he thinks, he can't help. And he has to help.
He came to find the body of the grandmother who raised him. He wasn't counting on support from the government, but rescuers reached the bottom of the ravine by early afternoon. They moved the tree trunk and cleared the mud from the most visible body. One look at the familiar face and Motta de Lima confirmed: his uncle, Waldecir Correia de Lima.
Four relatives dead. One located, three to go. Motta de Lima is one of the lucky ones. Four days after the disaster struck, official help is scarce, and residents are scrambling to rescue themselves - lugging water bottles, bags of groceries and blankets along miles of slippery, clay-covered rocks, rusting metal, trash.
The incessant rain makes everything dangerously slick. Stronger thunderstorms are expected Sunday. The smell of rot hangs heavy in the hot, humid air. About 30 national defense, fire department and civil defense personnel were working Saturday on the hillside where the neighborhood of Campo Grande once stood. Police lingered at the bottom of the wash - just keeping an eye on things, they explained.
Three national defense officers, their weapons slung across their chests, stood in clean uniforms as dirty, wet residents hiked by, carrying provisions. "Our function here today is to avoid looting," said Sgt. Luciano Comin.
Local and state fire departments said they had deployed 2,500 rescuers, while 225 federal policeman were in the area to maintain order. The federal government has been trying to fly in 11 helicopters to remote areas, but has found it difficult because of the rain and low clouds.
President Dilma Rousseff designated $60 million in aid for the state of Rio de Janeiro and the hardest-hit towns. The minister of national integration, Fernando Bezerra, said half the money would be in state and municipal accounts by Monday - six days after the disaster struck.
The state has decreed a seven-day mourning period to remember the victims of the worst natural disaster to strike Brazil in four decades; the president called for three days of national mourning.
A slow stream of wet, muddy men and women, some in their bare feet, tied supermarket bags together and slung them over shoulders to carry basic provisions to those too frail to make the treacherous hike down to the city Saturday.
Promised government help was scarce; 11 helicopters sent to airlift those in need had difficulty flying through the low clouds and steady rain, and many of the police and national guard were occupied with keeping order, not delivering aid.
No help - food, water, medication - had reached the survivors in cut-off communities like Cascata do Imbui by Saturday other than the little residents could haul. Two avalanches wiped out the road, leaving in places only a cracked ribbon of asphalt perched over an abyss.
"This was a beautiful place. It was a happy place," Renato Motta de Lima said. Like many survivors, his emotions are muted. The loss is too great - Motta de Lima can't stop to think. If he thinks, he can't help. And he has to help.
He came to find the body of the grandmother who raised him. He wasn't counting on support from the government, but rescuers reached the bottom of the ravine by early afternoon. They moved the tree trunk and cleared the mud from the most visible body. One look at the familiar face and Motta de Lima confirmed: his uncle, Waldecir Correia de Lima.
Four relatives dead. One located, three to go. Motta de Lima is one of the lucky ones. Four days after the disaster struck, official help is scarce, and residents are scrambling to rescue themselves - lugging water bottles, bags of groceries and blankets along miles of slippery, clay-covered rocks, rusting metal, trash.
The incessant rain makes everything dangerously slick. Stronger thunderstorms are expected Sunday. The smell of rot hangs heavy in the hot, humid air. About 30 national defense, fire department and civil defense personnel were working Saturday on the hillside where the neighborhood of Campo Grande once stood. Police lingered at the bottom of the wash - just keeping an eye on things, they explained.
Three national defense officers, their weapons slung across their chests, stood in clean uniforms as dirty, wet residents hiked by, carrying provisions. "Our function here today is to avoid looting," said Sgt. Luciano Comin.
Local and state fire departments said they had deployed 2,500 rescuers, while 225 federal policeman were in the area to maintain order. The federal government has been trying to fly in 11 helicopters to remote areas, but has found it difficult because of the rain and low clouds.
President Dilma Rousseff designated $60 million in aid for the state of Rio de Janeiro and the hardest-hit towns. The minister of national integration, Fernando Bezerra, said half the money would be in state and municipal accounts by Monday - six days after the disaster struck.
The state has decreed a seven-day mourning period to remember the victims of the worst natural disaster to strike Brazil in four decades; the president called for three days of national mourning.
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