The toll has risen to 234 dead in a landslide in Colombia caused by the overflowing of three rivers swollen by torrential rain, the Colombian Red Cross said yesterday.
Hardest-hit was the southwestern town of Mocoa, in the Amazon rainforest basin, which was struck late on Friday night by a sudden surge of mud and water that swept away homes, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber buried in thick mud.
At least 202 people were injured, more than 100 people missing, 300 families affected and 25 homes destroyed, the Red Cross said, citing information from rescue workers.
Photo: AFP
Rescuers yesterday clawed through piles of mud and twisted debris in the search for survivors.
The mudslides had followed after days of torrential rain in the town of 40,000.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos was yesterday scheduled to return to the town, the capital of Putumayo department, with Cabinet ministers to supervise rescue efforts in the heavily forested region.
Santos on Saturday met with rescuers and survivors in Mocoa, and declared a public health and safety emergency to speed up rescue and aid operations.
“Dear God, I don’t want to even remember that,” street vendor Marta Ceballos said. “To see how some people screamed, and others cried, ran, tried to flee in cars, on motorcycles, and how they were trapped in the mud. It’s all too, too difficult.”
Ceballos said that she lost all of her material possessions.
“The only things I fortunately did not lose were my husband, my daughters and my nephews,” she said.
Putumayo Governor Sorrel Aroca called the event “an unprecedented tragedy” for the area.
There are “hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighborhoods have disappeared,” he told W Radio.
Colombian National Disaster Risk Management Unit director Carlos Ivan Marquez said the mudslides were caused by the rise of the Mocoa River and tributaries.
About 130 millimeters of rain fell on Friday night, Santos said, adding: “That means 30 percent of monthly rainfall fell … precipitating a sudden rise of several rivers.”
“Our prayers are with the victims and those affected,” he said on Twitter.
“There are lots of people in the streets, lots of people displaced and many houses have collapsed,” retired Mocoa resident Hernando Rodriguez, 69, said by telephone.
“People do not know what to do ... there were no preparations” for such a disaster, he said. “We are just starting to realize what has hit us.”
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