Brazil mine disaster

Members of a rescue team search for victims on Monday after a tailings dam owned by Brazilian mining company Vale SA collapsed, in Brumadinho, Brazil. At least 60 people were killed with more than 300 still missing after the dam collapsed last Friday. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Brazil dam collapses: 200 missing, deaths feared

A dam collapse in southeast Brazil unleashed a torrent of mud on a riverside town and surrounding farmland Friday, destroying houses, leaving 200 people missing and raising fears of a number of deaths, according to officials.

President Jair Bolsonaro was to visit the affected zone, around the town of Brumadinho which is located near the city of Belo Horizonte, on Saturday, a government spokesman said.

His government, facing its first big emergency since taking office in the new year, set up urgent coordination between the defense, environment and mining ministries to bolster operations by the state of Minas Gerais.

Access to Brumaldinho -- population 39,000 -- was difficult after the mud cut across roads, hampering officials' ability to determine the scope and gravity of the disaster.

A fire service official told AFP initial accounts received indicated "there were several deaths."

In the statement, the fire service said it confirmed "the disappearance of approximately 200 people."

- People stuck in mud -

Television images showed helicopters being used to rescue people stuck in mud, and a wide swath of destruction carved through vegetation and farmland, in which damaged and destroyed houses were dotted.

Four people were taken to hospital and were in a stable condition.

A separate statement by the environment ministry said that "the initial preoccupation of the federal government is the rescue of victims, giving support to the region, and protecting water-catchment areas."

The dam belonged to Brazil's giant mining company Vale, which confirmed its collapse and said "the total priority is to protect the lives of employees and inhabitants."

It did not say what caused the collapse.

Shares in Vale fell around 10 percent in New York trading. The Sao Paulo stock market was closed Friday for a holiday.

Bolsonaro, in an interview with Brumadinho's Radio Regional FM, said he "deeply regretted" the dam collapse, which "is possibly more serious than thought" because it might have swept away Vale workers.

Friday's disaster recalled trauma from a 2015 dam break in a different part of the same state of Minas Gerais, in Mariana, in which 19 people died. 

That accident three years ago released millions of tons of toxic iron waste along hundreds of kilometers (miles), causing what is considered the country's worst environmental disaster. Vale was joint operator of that dam, along with the Anglo-Australian group BHP.

- Evacuations -

An emergency team from the Ibama environmental protection agency had been dispatched to the zone impacted by Friday's dam collapse to determine the damage, Environment Minister Ricardo Salles told the G1 news website. He was to visit Brumaldinho late Friday.

Ibama estimated that the collapse had released a million tons of water and mud, according to the Estadao newspaper.

An AFP photographer said police had blocked access roads to Brumadinho.

Civil defense officials said people living in low-lying areas in the town had been evacuated.

Brumadinho's municipality issued an alert on social media warning residents to move away from the Paraopeba river that the dam had been holding back.

The town is best known to tourists for Inhotim, an outdoor contemporary art museum, which was evacuated as a precaution. The venue receives 35,000 visitors a month.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

North Carolina dam collapse after Florence

Local residents walk along the edge of a collapsed road that ran atop Patricia Lake's dam. The dam collapsed in the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, in Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, USA on Thursday.

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Nearly 200,000 people told to flee crumbling California dam spillway

OROVILLE, California - Evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people living below the tallest dam in the United States remained in place early on Monday after residents were abruptly told to flee when a spillway appeared in danger of collapse.

Authorities issued the evacuation order on Sunday, saying that a crumbling emergency spillway on Lake Oroville Dam in north California could give way and unleash floodwaters onto rural communities along the Feather River.

"Immediate evacuation from the low levels of Oroville and areas downstream is ordered," the Butte County sheriff said in a statement posted on social media.

The California Department of Water Resources said on Twitter at about 4:30 p.m. PST (0030 GMT Monday) that the spillway next to the dam was "predicted to fail within the next hour."

Several hours later the situation appeared less dire, as the damaged spillway remained standing.

The state water resources department said crews using helicopters would drop rocks to fill a huge gouge, and authorities were releasing water to lower the lake's level after weeks of heavy rains in the drought-plagued state.

By 10 p.m., state and local officials said the immediate danger had passed with water no longer flowing over the eroded spillway. But they cautioned that the situation remained unpredictable.

"Once you have damage to a structure like that it's catastrophic," acting Water Resources director Bill Croyle told reporters. But he stressed "the integrity of the dam is not impacted" by the damaged spillway.

Asked about the evacuation order, Croyle said "It was a tough call to make." He added: "It was the right call to make."

'DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH'

Butte County Sheriff Korey Honea told an earlier news briefing he was told by experts that the hole forming in the spillway could compromise the structure. Rather than risk thousands of lives, the decision was made to order evacuations.

Officials said they feared the damaged spillway could unleash a 30-foot wall of water on Oroville, north of the state capital Sacramento.

They said evacuation orders remained in place for some 188,000 people in Oroville, Yuba County, Butte County, Marysville and nearby communities and would be re-evaluated at dawn.

The Yuba County Office of Emergency Services urged evacuees to travel only to the east, south or west. "DO NOT TRAVEL NORTH TOWARD OROVILLE," the department warned on Twitter.

Evacuation centers were set up at a fairgrounds in Chico, California, about 20 miles northwest of Oroville, but major highways leading south out of the area were jammed as residents fled the flood zone and hotels quickly filled up.

Javier Santiago, 42, fled with his wife, two children and several friends to the Oroville Dam Visitors Center in a public park above the dam and the danger zone.

With blankets, pillows and a little food, Santiago said: "We're going to sleep in the car."

The Oroville dam is nearly full following winter storms that brought relief to the state after four years of drought. Water levels were less than 7 feet (2 meters) from the top of the dam on Friday.

State authorities and engineers on Thursday began releasing water from the dam after noticing that large chunks of concrete were missing from a spillway.

California Governor Jerry Brown asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday to declare the area a major disaster due to flooding and mudslides brought on by the storms.

The earthfill dam is just upstream and east of Oroville, a city of more than 16,000 people.

At 770 feet (230 meters) high, the structure, built between 1962 and 1968, is the tallest U.S. dam, exceeding the Hoover Dam by more than 40 feet (12 meters).

source: news.abs-cbn.com

25 minutes to escape: Brazilian village destroyed in dam deluge

BENTO RODRIGUES, Brazil - From when the first warnings were heard, the Brazilian village of Bento Rodrigues had about 25 minutes to escape.

The water from a broken dam holding waste water from the nearby Samarco mine in Minas Gerais state moved fast down the valley. A flood believed to be some 20 meters (65 feet) high swept through the village of 600, destroying homes and livelihoods within minutes.

Apart from a few houses spared by being on higher ground, homes are little more than bare walls now. A thick sludge of water and iron ore tore off the roofs and settled over the village like hardening wax, leaving twisted cars perched awkwardly in its wake. Helicopters buzzed overhead, searching for the lost 24 hours after the deluge.

One person has been confirmed dead, 13 are reported missing and many more remain unaccounted for after two tailings dams burst on Thursday at the Samarco mine owned by two of the world's largest miners, Vale SA and BHP Billiton.

A school in the line of the advancing water was hastily evacuated by teachers, an act which is thought to have saved dozens of lives. "There are heroes in this tragedy," the local mayor Duarte Júnior said in acknowledgement of their actions.

Six villages were hit by the flood as 60 million cubic meters of waste water swamped the region.

Residents were evacuated to a gymnasium in the nearby town of Mariana, where hundreds of mattresses lined the floor and medical staff bustled in white coats attending to the injured. Donations of water, clothes and blankets poured in from well-wishers with many taking the day off work to help those who have lost everything.

"There's nothing left in my village. Just memories," Soraia Souza, 24, from the village of Paracatu de Baixo, told Reuters while holding an 18-month-old baby wearing just a diaper.

At the site of the worst devastation, twenty rescue workers sweated in the humid Brazilian heat, trying to rescue a horse trapped in the thick, heavy mud. With a rope wrapped around it, twenty men and women tugged to exhaustion, but the animal wouldn't budge. As dusk turned to dark, hopes the horse could be saved wavered.

"We've tried everything, there's nothing more we can do," said Maximiliano Inacio, a local firefighter.

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