Brazil: Petrópolis’ businesses reopen and count their losses

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Twelve days after the tragedy that hit Petrópolis, the city’s businesses are trying to reopen. The downpour that began mid-afternoon on February 15 quickly caused the water level to rise and caught people by surprise, preventing them from taking measures to protect their stock, and causing heavy losses.

The stores located on Imperador Street, one of the main downtown streets, were severely affected. At Papelaria Obelisco, one of the most traditional stationery stores, founded 40 years ago, the damage was total, said manager Diego Silveira.

“This time of year it always rains a lot, but that day the rain wouldn’t stop. When we realized, the cars were floating and we had no time to open the floodgates. That day, the water went over our chests. We lost everything we had in the store. The damage is close to R$1 million (US$193,500). We were in the school term, so we were selling well. There is nothing we can do,” Diego said. The store’s situation is not only worse because it belongs to a large state network, which should cover losses in its structure.

Other business owners do not enjoy this opportunity, because they have family stores, passed on from father to son, and suffered the damages on their own. One such example is Casa Seabra musical instrument store, founded in 1969 and family-run. According to manager Ariadne Marques dos Santos, the founder’s daughter, the water rose so fast that it was impossible to remove most of the musical instruments, which were totally lost.

“It’s been really hard. Because we had no idea that something like this would happen. It was unexpected. There have been other floods before, but we didn’t lose anything, because we moved our instruments up a meter. But this rain was atypical, the water rose over one and a half meters. We lost many instruments, accessories and counters. Everything must be replaced, even the walls. We will reopen after Carnival, but I don’t know when. Our loss was around R$150,000,” Ariadne said.

While downtown business owners were counting material losses, others were lamenting the loss of customers killed in the landslides, as recalled Jaime dos Santos, owner of a small bar on the slope of Morro da Oficina, where most people died in the tragedy.

“I never thought that this could happen. There were many people I knew, who won’t come to my bar ever again. Unfortunately. They died. They will be remembered,” Jaime said, whose bar was closed for 5 days because there was no water supply. The establishment was not affected, but a few meters ahead, on the other side of the street, virtually everything collapsed.

CLOTHING

Petrópolis is famous for the amount of clothing stores and garment companies, which leads hundreds of people to climb the hills daily, especially on weekends, in search of good deals.

These entrepreneurs hope to have their work normalized by mid-year. Addison Meneses, also chairman of the Union of the Petrópolis Clothing Manufacturers, owns a small/medium size company. Before the pandemic, its production averaged 5,000 items per month.

“I think it won’t take long for our wheels to start turning again. We will be working again for winter. It is a very important season. I think that in 2, 3 months, people will have their stores ready to welcome customers. The first impact is really bad, but people will reinvent themselves,” Addison said.

He believes in a rebound because the sector is now more fragmented. Instead of the large companies that made the city the largest industrial hub in South America in the 50s and 60s, nowadays there are smaller companies with few employees, but there are also seamstresses working from home.

Established in Petrópolis 37 years ago, Addison’s company has 5 female employees, and the remaining work is done by groups of seamstresses spread throughout the city, usually with a maximum of 3 in each location. The problem now is that many of them live in areas heavily affected by the rain, such as the 24 de maio region.

“It’s going to disrupt the sector, the entrepreneurs, but we will quickly reinvent ourselves because we are spread out. Many sell beyond the city too. What we will need to rebuild Teresa Street, which is currently closed,” he explained.

Although confident in the resumption of business, Addison pointed out that, in order to recover production, entrepreneurs need the help of public authorities by releasing loans. He hopes to be able to reopen the company next week.

“We must ensure that the government looks particularly at entrepreneurs in the region, providing credit at feasible costs and with time to pay installments so people can have some room to rebuild. Some people lost stock, some lost machinery. As it is something very widespread, entrepreneurs have no money, but they will manage if the government helps. Furthermore, due to the pandemic, entrepreneurs have been in a complicated situation for some time now,” he added.