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Monday 3 april 2017

At Press Time:
Desperation sets in as flood death toll in Colombia tops 200

ALBA TOBELLA
Associated Press
MOCOA, Colombia (AP)
— Townspeople desper-
ately searched their ruined
homes and the local hos-
pital for loved ones Sun-
day after a torrent of wa-
ter, mud and debris swept
through a city in southern
Colombia, causing more
than 200 deaths, many of
them children, and leav-
ing hundreds more missing
and injured.
Neighborhoods were left
strewn with rocks, wood-
en planks, tree limbs and
brown muck after heavy
rain caused the three riv-
ers that surround Mocoa to
rise up and surge through
the city of 40,000 Friday
night and early Saturday
as people slept. The del-
uge smashed houses, tore
trees out by the roots and
washed cars and trucks
away.
Search-and-rescue teams Firefighters search for survivors in Mocoa, Colombia, Sunday, April 2, 2017. Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, who has de-
combed through the de- clared Mocoa a disaster area, said that at least 207 were killed but that the death toll was changing “every moment.” Authorities
said another 200 people, many of them children, were injured and just as many were unaccounted for amid the destruction.
bris and helped people (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)
who had been desperate-
ly clawing at huge mounds
of mud by hand. Many of family members who well was totally beaten up” clothes, school books,” he built their homes close to
had little left to search. were not on the list of those but managed to save her said. “I am a father and this the water. But the trigger-
“People went to their hous- confirmed dead or injured. 18-month-old baby, she breaks my heart.” ing event was rainfall of
es and found nothing but Others frantically knocked said. Santos said the avalanche more than 5 inches (130
the floor,” said Gilma Diaz, on relatives’ doors, hoping A rescue worker in an or- of water and debris also milimeters) that began late
a 42-year-old woman from to find someone with infor- ange jumpsuit emerged knocked out power in half Friday.
another town who came mation about their loved from one search area of the province of Putu- A 1989 hydrology report
to search for a cousin. ones. with the body of an infant mayo, where Mocoa is lo- for the Agricultural Ministry
President Juan Manuel The disaster seemed to hit wrapped in a towel. Not far cated, and destroyed the warned that just such a di-
Santos, who visited Mocoa young people particularly away, Abelardo Solarte, a area’s fresh water network, saster could happen unless
for a second straight day hard. Santos said more than 48-year-old resident of Mo- creating dangerous and steps were taken to rein-
Sunday, declared the area 40 of the dead identified so coa, held a child’s shoe as unsanitary conditions. force the riverbanks, chan-
a disaster zone and said far were under 18, perhaps he helped clear debris. Mocoa is vulnerable to nel water away from the
the death toll stood at 210. because youngsters were “You have no idea how flooding. It is surrounded by town and restore some of
But that was all but certain already in bed when the many kids there are around the three rivers in a natural the forest.
to rise because authorities floodwaters struck. here,” Solarte said. basin created by the sur- It was not immediately
said there were more than Maria Cordoba, a 52-year- Jair Echarri, who came rounding mountains. clear why those steps had
200 injured, some in critical old resident who was trying from a nearby town to help, The danger has grown not been taken.
condition, and more than to wash her belongings in a also struggled to compre- worse in recent years be- Juan Chanchi de Ruiz, 74,
200 others unaccounted river, said two of her neph- hend the loss of so many cause of deforestation, said the noise of the surg-
for. ews, ages 6 and 11, were children. “I feel an enor- which eliminates some pro- ing flood woke her up and
Dozens stood in the door of killed when their house was mous sadness because it’s tection from runoff, and gave her enough time to
a hospital, hoping for news destroyed. “The mother as filled with kids’ things, toys, because many people get to higher ground.q