[...] on Nov. 5, a dam at a nearby iron ore mine burst, unleashing a tsunami of mud that swept away nearly everything in its path, flattening houses, uprooting trees and tossing cars. With hundreds of survivors holed up in hotels and with family members in nearby towns, Bento Rodrigues and other nearby hamlets like Paracatu have become ghost towns — mud-slathered no-go-zones where a plastic rose, a religious picture, a doll are the only reminders of the lives people built. The plume of mud devastated wildlife and compromised the drinking water source for cities both here in Minas Gerais state and in the neighboring state of Espirito Santo.