1 year on, Brazilian city still haunted by dam collapse

RIO DE JANEIRO — Like she has so many other nights, Ana Maria Gomes is awakened by the cries of her husband and tries to calm him as he shouts for help from his mine coworkers. She convinces him the dam collapse that devastated their city of Brumadinho and killed at least 270 people happened a year ago.

Sebastiao Gomes, who worked in the environmental cleanup division of the mine in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, recounted the episode and said he’s learning to live with the nightmares. He is also undergoing psychiatric treatment, still amazed that he survived the wall of mud that buried so many of his friends one year ago Saturday. And he is not alone.

Brumadinho is a city of 40,000 residents tortured by its past, and struggling to find a future, with doctors reporting spikes in the use of anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants.

“The city is torn apart. A year has gone by chronologically, but it’s like it happened yesterday,” Gomes, 54, said by phone.

The rupture of mining company Vale’s dam created a wave of mud and debris that buried the equivalent of 300 soccer fields. Families lost children in the mud. Some bodies still haven’t been found.

On Saturday, relatives of the victims held a memorial on the anniversary. They released balloons inscribed with the words, “The way that you left hurts too much.”

For survivors and family members of victims, the dam’s collapse was only the beginning.

Use of anti-depressants jumped 56% in 2019 between January and November from the prior year, while anxiety medication rose 79% in the same period, according to data from Brumadinho’s city hall.

“The impact on the population’s mental health is similar to that caused by a huge disaster, like Fukushima, or September 11 in the U.S.,” said Maila de Castro Neves, a professor of psychiatric care at Minas Gerais state’s federal university. Paradoxically, the local economic impact was initially positive, as the city received an infusion of emergency funds from Vale and carried out recovery works. The company paid out more than $6 billion in compensation, heating up local activity.

But the paralysis of mining activity, which generated about 60% of town revenue before the tragedy, has left Brumadinho’s economic future unknown.

The eve of the disaster’s anniversary brought some hope to victims’ families that their loved ones may find justice. Public prosecutors charged Vale, German auditing firm TUV SUD and 16 employees for intentional homicide and environmental crimes. Among the accused is Vale’s former CEO, Fabio Schvartsman.

Nevertheless, Gomes is hopeful that he — and Brumadinho — can turn the page. But the disaster will remain forever etched in their history.

“The tragedies and the losses will always leave wounds, but the town will overcome,” he said.