Bogotá/Quetame (EFE).- The death toll from a mud and water avalanche that occurred in the town of Quetame, in the Colombian department of Cundinamarca (center), rose to 14, in addition to 6 injured and several missing, reported this Tuesday the governor of that region, Nicolás García.
Given the situation, the authorities declared “the public calamity and the urgency to dispose of the resources immediately to attend to the victims, the families and the municipality of Quetame,” added the governor.
“Since 1:30 in the morning (6:30 GMT) we have been working at the Unified Command Post (PMU) to attend to the emergency in the municipality of Quetame. At this time there are already 14 bodies found dead, six people found alive and sent to health posts and hospitals in the province and in the department of Meta and Villavicencio,” García reported.
The heavy rains caused the overflow of two streams in the early hours of Tuesday that destroyed part of the village of Naranjal, located in the rural area of Quetame.
Children among the dead in the avalanche
The general director of the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), Olmedo López, explained to EFE that among the deceased there are three minors and that the families affected for the moment will move to a shelter temporarily.
“It was a small community,” said the official, who added that, according to data from the Quetame Mayor’s Office, “there are 20 homes missing” under the tons of mud left behind by the avalanche.
López defended that it is necessary to “advance in the ordering of the territory around the water”, so it is necessary to guarantee that “this territory is never inhabited again”, but rather that the inhabitants of the area can reach another safer place in terms of of disasters of this caliber.
According to the authorities, the avalanche also swept away a bridge, which caused the closure of the highway that goes from Bogotá to Villavicencio, capital of the Meta department and one of the country’s agricultural pantries.
“Some infrastructure works were lost, such as the bridge to Villavicencio and a bridge on the sidewalk, but the important thing today is to save lives, what is being done is the search for families and the accompaniment of them,” López added.
roads affected
The Administration, Operation and Maintenance of the Bogotá-Villavicencio Road (Coviandina) reported the “total closure” of the road “with no estimated opening time”.
The UNGRD, for its part, moved to the area and is leading the search for the disappeared. Its director explained that there are 20 missing homes, since it was a “small community.”
To deal with the emergency, the Army’s Disaster Care and Prevention Brigade sent a group of soldiers specialized in search and rescue to the area in order to locate the victims and attend to the emergency.
From Villavicencio, Bogotá and Pereira, nine specialized search and rescue team operators, 42 specialized service soldiers and 30 basic service soldiers for a total of 81 troops, reported the Army.