Mudslides, protests, strikes Rio is an unruly city. In an effort to impose order, mayor Eduardo Paes has built nothing short of the worlds most ambitious urban command centre
On the night of 7 April 2010, Luciano Machado was doing electrical work on a roof in the hillside favela Morro do Bumba. The Rio de Janeiro area had just experienced its worst summer downpour in history nine inches of rain in 24 hours. The weather had cleared and Machado was back on the roof, untangling wire, when Bumbas summit suddenly cratered out. Machado was just able to jump out of the way as the landslide punched through dozens of homes. When he looked back, there was only a river of mud.
Bumba was only one of several favelas across Rio devastated by mudslides that day, a cruel lesson in the citys polarised geography. The asfalto, or legal city, experienced severe flooding but only a few deaths. The collapse at Morro do Bumba alone killed 267 people, and at least a hundred more perished at other favelas. Upwards of 10,000 were left homeless.