A survivor of a landslide in central Colombia that killed at least 16 people this week described how mud and water rushes drove her from her home early in the morning, as local officials warned Tens of thousands may still be at risk.
On Tuesday, a landslide, which buried part of the La Esneda neighborhood on the border of the cities of Dosquebradas and Pereira, was followed by heavy rain in the surrounding coffee-growing province.
Drone footage shows dark, brown spots in the green hills above the community. Below, roofs are sunken, and clothing and belongings that were once scattered among the rubble of houses were all covered in a thick film of mud.
Alvaro Alzate, 62, whose father, brother, niece’s children and neighbors were all killed, said, “It was about half past six when it was killed, my family was stuck there.” “The mud took me down the street naked, I went down the street in the mud.”
His brother woke him early, Alzette said, which he believes saved his life.
“We are alive by a miracle,” Baker said as he watched the ongoing rescue operations with surviving relatives, their arms and legs covered in cuts and bruises from the landslide. “It’s so hard, it hurts so much.”
Colombia’s disaster management agency said on Wednesday that thirty-six people were injured and three were missing.
Others may still be at risk, warned regional environmental officer Julio Cesar Gómez, who said tens of thousands of people are in unsafe habitat near three region’s rivers, including those fleeing conflict violence and vulnerable Venezuelan migrants. Huh.
“Everything is at risk,” he said. “We can easily talk about 50,000 people who are located in at-risk areas.”
The disaster agency said seven homes were destroyed in the avalanche and another 69 were evacuated.
Landslides are common in Colombia due to mountainous terrain, frequent heavy rains and poor or informal construction of houses.
Prior to Tuesday’s landslide, there were 64 incidents of landslides, floods or river overflows across the country this year, in which seven people died, the agency said.
The country’s most recent major landslide killed more than 320 people in the city of Mokoa in 2017.