Landslides in Colombia leave at least 34 dead
A total of 34 people have died in Colombia and dozens were injured by several landslides that occurred on Friday, according to the Chocó Government this Saturday.
The figure initially reported by the Colombian vice president, Francia Márquez Mina, was 33 deaths, but hours later it was updated and a unified command post was established to coordinate actions to address the emergency. The authorities indicated that 17 lifeless bodies have been inspected and another 17 are expected to be transferred to continue with the same task. The Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the number of fatalities.
Search and rescue actions continue for the people who remain trapped under the landslide on the Quibdó-Medellín highway, in Carmen del Atrato. The area where the landslides occurred are located about 85 miles southwest of the city of Medellín. The National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (Ungrd) reported 35 injured people who have been transferred to care centers and personnel from the National Army, the Colombian Aerospace Force, the Civil Defense and the Fire Department are working in the area.
One of the landslides occurred on Friday afternoon and buried several vehicles that were stopped, apparently due to an avalanche that previously blocked the highway between Medellín and Quibdó, the capital of Chocó. In a video recorded by witnesses, a line of vehicles is seen stopped on the road, waiting for the pass to open, when suddenly the mountain collapses, burying them and their occupants. Fifty people were taking shelter from the rain in a house when the avalanche hit.
Rescue operations continue and the information is still partial, since it is a road that, although it connects Medellín with Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó jungle, is remote and the signal is intermittent. The Army, which has deployed 30 rescue soldiers, is using drone overflights “to identify possible sites where trapped personnel may be found” and also dogs to locate victims.
The vice president of Colombia, Francia Márquez, announced that among the victims there are several minors. The government had reported the identification of at least four women among the bodies that remain in forensic medicine and that accompaniment has been arranged for family members through a psychosocial support team.
Governor Nubia Córdoba, accompanied by the director of the Risk Management Unit, Víctor Mesa, went by helicopter to the emergency area. “We lived a very sad weekend for Chocó, our people feel the pain of the victims,” she said. Córdoba reported that there are bodies that have been transferred to Medellín and others are in the Immediate Reaction Unit of Quibdó, capital of this department, so that they can come and identify them.