Mudslides in Colombia killed at least 254 people, including 43 children after torrential rains caused three rivers to overflow surrounding the southern city of Mocoa. Suddenly a torrent of mud and debris came surging through the city. Aerial footage of the site showed some rooftops poking above the muddy deluge that flattened other homes, bridges and highways.
Power and water supplies to Mocoa have been cut by the disaster, and the hospital system has shut down, firefighters say.
Concerned by the increasingly heavy rainstorms before the mudslide, Simon Uribe and his family shifted from their first-floor riverside apartment to the level above. The river broke its banks 50 meters up the street, splitting and leaving their home effectively surrounded by two strong currents. The electricity cut out.
“At some point, most of the city was (covered) with water. No power but you can see rivers in every street,” Simon Uribe. “I watched people — some girls coming down the river — some bodies coming by the water. It was terrible. It was pretty shocking,” he said.
Uribe and his family, escaped to higher ground, but the next morning his house was gone. “There was basically no house left,” Uribe said. “It was shocking.”
More than 1,000 soldiers and national police officers are involved in the rescue effort, and they are facing enormous challenges. Eighty percent of the roads in the region are impassible, making rescue and recovery efforts extremely difficult.
At least 300 families have been displaced and more than two-dozen homes had been flattened. At least 70 children were separated from their parents.
Many people searched through the debris for their possessions after the mudslide destroyed their homes.
Heavy rains up to 200mm (5-8 inches) along with high levels of deforestation, informal housing and dense human populations are some factors that can leave communities vulnerable to landslides, say scientists.
“Taking into account geography for the region, topography, deforestation due to agriculture, etc … this creates the perfect environment for mudslides/landslides on the leeward side of the Andes Mountains where this town is located,” said CNN’s meteorologist Michael Guy.
“The floodwaters got stuck up in the mountain and when it came down many people didn’t have time to react and they were washed away,” a survivor told CNN.
“We couldn’t help anybody, because if we tried we would’ve been washed away as well. I saw light poles washed away by the floodwaters. This is a great tragedy,” Marcelo Garreta, another resident said. Garreta said he saw dead bodies being carried away by the floodwaters, but was powerless to help.
Photos released by Colombia’s military showed rescuers carrying old women and children over downed, mud-caked trees and homes.
“The restraining Spirit of God is even now being withdrawn from the world. Hurricanes, storms, tempests, fire and flood, disasters by sea and land, follow each other in quick succession. Science seeks to explain all these. The signs thickening around us, telling of the near approach of the Son of God, are attributed to any other than the true cause. Men cannot discern the sentinel angels restraining the four winds that they shall not blow until the servants of God are sealed; but when God shall bid His angels loose the winds, there shall be such a scene of strife as no pen can picture.” Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, page 408.