Colombia landslide search resumes amid fears death toll of 200 will rise dramatically
Updated
A grim search for the missing has resumed in southern Colombia after surging rivers sent an avalanche of floodwaters, mud and debris through a city, killing at least 200 people and leaving many more injured and homeless.
Key points:
- Mocoa is without drinking water or power while hospitals are running out of supplies
- Officials declares the region a disaster zone
- It is one of the world natural disasters in recent Colombian history
People in Mocoa pried through piles of rocks and wooden planks that entombed homes. Streets were covered in thick sand, mud and tree limbs from the rivers and rainforest that surround the city.
There was little drinking water and no power, which forced authorities to suspend the search and rescue effort during the night.
The National Disaster Agency said on Sunday that the death toll was at 200, with another 200 injured, but authorities conceded it could easily go higher because many people were still unaccounted for and dozens were airlifted to hospitals in other cities in critical conditions, mostly children.
The army had initially put the death toll at 254, but this figure was later revised to separate those injured or still missing from the official toll.
"My mother-in-law was also missing, but we found her alive 2 kilometres away," local resident Mario Usal said.
"She has head injuries, but she was conscious."
Bodies were being placed in a temporary morgue, where three teams of medical examiners were working around the clock to swiftly identify the remains.
Authorities and residents in the city tucked between mountains along Colombia's southern border spent Saturday tending to victims, trying to find homes on streets reduced to masses of rubble and engaged in a desperate search to locate loved ones who disappeared in the dark of night.
President Juan Manuel Santos travelled to Mocoa and declared the city a disaster zone on Saturday.
The Air Force transported 19 patients to a city further north and said 20 more would be evacuated soon.
Medicine and surgical supplies were being sent to the city as the area's regional hospital struggled to cope with the magnitude of the crisis.
Herman Granados, an anaesthesiologist, said he worked throughout the night on victims.
He said the hospital did not have a blood bank large enough to deal with the number of patients and was quickly running out of its supply.
Some of the hospital workers came to help even though their own relatives remained missing.
"Under the mud, I am sure there are many more," Dr Granados said.
'There were bodies all over'
The crisis is likely to be remembered as one of the worst natural disasters in recent Colombian history, though the Andean nation has experienced even more destructive environmental catastrophes.
Nearly 25,000 people were killed in 1985 after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted and triggered a deluge of mud and debris that buried the town of Armero.
As rescuers in Mocoa shifted through debris, many residents were conducting their own searches for lost loved ones.
Oscar Londono tried in vain throughout the night to reach his wife's parents, whose home is right along one of the flooded rivers.
He decided it was too dangerous to try to reach them in the dark. So he called over and over by phone but got no answer.
Once the sun began to rise he started walking toward their house but found all the streets he usually takes missing.
"There were bodies all over," he said.
When he finally reached the neighbourhood where his in-laws live, he found "just mud and rocks".
Rescue workers with the military directed him towards the mountain, where he found his relatives camped with other survivors.
"To know they were alive, it was a reunion of tears," he said.
AP
Topics: landslide, disasters-and-accidents, rainfall, floods, colombia
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