2 killed when dams at iron mine burst, sending sea of toxic mud flowing into Brazilian village
MARIANA, Brazil — The flood of mud came without a warning. The only hint the roughly 600 residents of Bento Rodrigues had that a sea of viscous, clay-red mud was about to flow into their village with the destructive power of lava was a deafening clap.
The sound of two dams bursting Thursday afternoon at the Samarco iron ore mine in Brazil’s central Minas Gerais state sent residents running for the hills, and, miraculously, most appear to have survived.
Only two people were confirmed to have been killed in the accident, which sent some 62 million cubic meters of water and iron ore leftovers flooding into the village, which is located some 4 miles downhill from the mine, officials said Friday. Four were injured and another 13 were missing.
Still, officials warned that those numbers could rise. Only about 100 of the nearly 600 people thought to live in the area have been officially accounted for.
The cause of the accident was not known, but a seismology lab at the University of Brasilia reported that several small tremors were registered in the area hours ahead of the disaster, according to O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.
A spokesman with the U.S. Geological Survey, John Bellini, said the agency, which monitors seismic activity worldwide, had not located any earthquakes in the region on Thursday, noting that they would generally not receive data on any event smaller than a 4.2-magnitude quake. Still, he stressed that it would generally take a quake larger than 4.5 magnitude to damage a dam.
Hundreds of survivors were taking shelter Friday in a gym in the nearby city of Mariana, as donations of food, clothing and mattresses poured in. Many of the survivors had injuries to their feet, sustained after they fled their houses barefoot and trekked through the devastated terrain and then onto scorching asphalt.
Gov. Fernando Pimentel called the flood an environmental tragedy and said the accident was the “biggest natural disaster in the history of our state.”
State prosecutor Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Pinto said he will recommend the governor suspend Samarco’s environmental license for its operations in the region.