The figures were released Friday at a press conference offered by Minas Gerais state fire rescue and mine operator Samarco, which is jointly owned by Brazil’s Vale and Australia-based BHP Billiton.
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The lateness of the hour at which the dams burst meant that when night fell just three hours later, further complications arose against rescue efforts. Video footage shows homes and buildings ripped apart and submerged in mud, trees leveled, and a truck dangling upside down from a cliff-side.
Her neighbour, Bernardo Trinidade, a plumber, said authorities warned that the river behind his house would swell by a metre or two. But residents, regulators, environmentalists and others across Brazil have begun questioning oversight at the mine, pointing to broader concerns about the safety and sustainability of mining, one of Brazil’s biggest industries and a major source of export revenue. The centre recorded tremors magnitude 2 to 2.6 before the dams burst, but said it could not say they caused the disaster without more extensive research.
There has so far been no official information from the government or the company involved on the number of casualties. “We don’t even know that we’ll find everybody”, said firefighter Adão Severino Junior in Mariana.
Dirce da Silva Mendes, a mother of two, said: “The mud has taken over the whole house”.
Samarco said in a Facebook post Friday that it has placed 70 families – a total of 253 people – in hotels, provided 3,800 meals and snacks, handed out 10,000 bottles of water and delivered 600 emergency kits containing sheets, towels, blankets and personal hygiene materials.
Another survivor, Joaquim Dutra, said: “When I went outside there were already people running uphill, saying the dam burst”.
“There are heroes in this tragedy”, the local mayor Duarte Júnior said in acknowledgement of their actions.
“We designed and we supplied an inflatable rubber dam which was one meter high and 30 metres wide, and that was installed on the spillway of the Santarem dam”, Mason said.
Samarco, which churned out 25 million metric tons of mostly pellets past year, uses water-filled pipelines to transport ore from its mines in the states of Minas Gerais and Espirito Santo to processing plants near its port.
Vale directed questions to officials at their Samarco joint venture, which said in a statement it had not yet determined why the dam burst or the extent of the disaster.
A dam was being covered with waste rock when its wall collapsed, sending a wave of tailings and rock into the creek below.
There are fears that the iron ore residue in the mud poses a health risk.
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Samarco’s chief executive said the mine’s environmental licenses were up to date and the dams had been inspected in July.
