“Sewage tsunami” hits Brazilian city

It looks as gross as it sounds – 1.6 million gallons of raw sewage flooded the streets of Niteroi Sunday. The accident occurred after wall broke at a sewage treatment plant in the city, which sits just across from Rio de Janeiro on the now-even-more-polluted Guanabara Bay. Two of the eight people injured by the wave of sludge are still hospitalized. One has a fractured shoulder and the other suffered trauma to the head. Both have various abrasions on their body. Everyone, I’m guessing, also smells pretty bad.

“It was horrible,” 56-year-old Selma de Oliveira Pinheiro told the newspaper O Globo. Her business was among those swamped with sewage. “It seemed like a tsunami. It was lucky no one died.”

A 60-year-old retiree injured in the accident said he was playing cards when he heard loud noises.

“We got scared,” said Ubirajara da Costa Viellas. “We started to run and yelled to warn others to get out, but we couldn’t escape. I was tossed about 600 feet and saw death up close.”

The company in charge of the plant, Waters of Niteroi, says it’s investigating the cause of the accident.