Soundsofneglect

Civil Defense siren warning of heavy rainfall risk in Rio de Janeiro

The strong winds announce that a storm is about to arrive. Lightning and thunder take over the sky, streaking the dark clouds, so heavy that they seem to be just a few meters from the ground. The rain turns into a downpour and brings with it the sounds of chaos: screams and horns take over the streets, rivers overflow, roads come to a standstill, entire areas end up flooded.

Report on rains in Rio de Janeiro

Often, the roar of landslides announces that more lives have been cut short. The Civil Defense siren, warning of the risk of landslides, is a type of sound that remains, to the ears of the carioca, an enigma: sometimes it sounds, sometimes it doesn't, as countless episodes have shown.

Image description: This is a photograph of a cityscape under a cloudy sky. On the left side, we see a rugged mountain, while on the right, there is a city with scattered buildings. In the center, there is a large body of water, possibly a lake or river. The horizon is dominated by dense, dark clouds that cover much of the sky. The lighting is low, suggesting that it might be about to rain.

Summer in Rio de Janeiro can also have these sounds — and these silences. Nature demands its price, after all, calling for works and prevention mechanisms that can appease the fury of already-announced tragedies. The balance between natural landscape and urban occupation, in the end, can be broken by the softest murmur.

Image description: This is a photograph of a coastal city under a cloudy sky. On the left side, there is a mountain covered in green vegetation. In the center, we see a densely populated area with many colorful buildings, including houses and buildings of different sizes. On the right, there is a beach with waves breaking on the shore. In the background, on the left, are taller buildings, possibly part of an urban center. On the right side of the image, there is a large tree with green leaves.

The lament and desolation of Cariocas left homeless by the summer rains, year after year, isn't usually included in the inventory of sounds that make up the imaginary of the Cidade Maravilhosa. But they're there, with their desperate weeping over the loss of a home, with their collective snoring in the courtyards of churches and schools turned into temporary shelters. One example of this is the aftermath of the storms that caused great damage in the city in February 2019, leaving at least seven dead — two of them inside a bus that was buried by a landslide on Avenida Niemeyer. Besides the winds, the roar of the waters, and the thunderclaps, another sound has become common in these rains: that of falling trees, a renewed feature of a tragedy that keeps repeating itself.