Brazilian mudslide survivors left to fend for themselves

TERESOPOLIS, Brazil -- They are tired, hungry, traumatized -- and resigned to saving themselves without the aid their government promised after massive mudslides that killed nearly 600 people.

Wanderson Ferreira de Carvalho lost 23 family members -- including his wife and 2-year-old son -- in massive mudslides, yet spent Saturday hauling water and food up steep jungle trails. Emotionally numb, physically exhausted, he knew nobody else was going to help save friends in his remote neighborhood, isolated after a road was washed out.

"We have to help those who are alive," he said as he hauled supplies five miles up the dangerous trail. "There is no more help for those who are dead. I've cried a lot and sometimes my mind goes blank and I almost forget what happened. But we have to do what we must to help the living."

Hundreds of survivors are in the same situation as Carvalho, forced to save themselves after torrential rains last week triggered rumbling mudslides early Wednesday in mountain towns north of Rio de Janeiro. The death toll had risen to 598 by Saturday, and there were fears it would climb sharply higher once remote areas were reached.

Carvalho seemed to find solace in working feverishly to help his friends. After he got word that his father's body was found badly decomposed, he also decided that he didn't want rescuers to try and find his son and wife.

"I would rather not see him now," Carvalho said of his son. "Whoever is buried, it's better to leave them in peace."

While Carvalho and others are angry at the lack of government help, they also seem oddly resigned, as if having to save themselves after Brazil's worst natural disaster in four decades were not unusual.

At the base of the steep hills leading up to Carvalho's Campo Grande neighborhood, only a few firefighters and two federal policemen were seen -- and they were not helping people carry supplies.

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 poor weather conditions.

Simone dos Santos Pinto, a 36-year-old resident of the Campo Grande neighborhood who was hiking supplies up to her sick, 65-year-old father, said there was no help, and she could not understand why.

"There is nothing," she said. "I'm leaving my father up there and my house is about to collapse. But what am I going to do?"

The mudslides hit an area of nearly 900 square miles in lush, forested mountains about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Rio. The deaths are centered in Teresopolis and three other towns, where many wealthier citizens of Rio maintain weekend homes.

In the center of Teresopolis, hundreds of homeless are sheltered in a local gymnasium in the town, where food and medical care are abundant.

While the disaster has destroyed the homes of rich and poor alike, the deaths are overwhelmingly seen in humbler areas, where homes are flimsier, most lacking foundations, and located in steep areas known to be at high risk of mudslides.

In those areas, horror stories are trickling out as survivors make it to town.

Fernando Perfista dug out the body of his eldest child from the mud, then looked for the 12-year-old's three missing siblings. He sheltered the boy's remains in a refrigerator to keep scavenging dogs at bay while he searched.

After failing to find his other children in the Fazenda Alpina area of Teresopolis, the 31-year-old ranch hand built a gurney from scrap wood, carried his son's body down a mudslide-wrecked slope before dawn Friday and buried him in a homemade coffin.

Then Perfista waited with a crowd in the rain outside the Teresopolis morgue for a chance to plead with officials to help him continue his search. He clutched plastic-covered pictures of his three other children: a chubby 1-year-old and two smiling girls, ages 6 and 10.

"My children are in there, in that river bank, under that mud," he said blankly.

Amauri Souza, a 38-year-old who helped Perfista carry his son's body, said a few helicopters had reached isolated areas, but "they're only taking down the wounded." He said officials were not dropping off body bags or food or water, adding that he feared the consequences if aid did not arrive soon.

"The water is rotten, but people are forced to drink it. There is no food. I had meat in my house, but it's all gone bad," Souza said.

He said he pulled his wife and 6-month-old daughter onto higher ground just as a churning mass of water, mud and rocks hit early Wednesday. But his wife's parents were lost -- he heard their screams for help as they washed away. Their bodies hadn't been found by Friday.

"It's a scene of war and total loss," said Souza.

Rio state's Civil Defense department said on its website Saturday that 260 people were killed in Teresopolis and 267 in Nova Friburgo, a 45-mile (75-kilometer) drive to the west that draws hikers and campers to mountain trails, waterfalls and dramatic views of lush green slopes. Fifty-three died in neighboring Petropolis and 18 in the town of Sumidouro.

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Associated Press writers Stan Lehman and Bradley Brooks in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.