“I don’t believe it”: William Suarez still remembers the horror of the Nevado del Ruiz eruption in 1985, which killed 25,000 people in western Colombia. But, despite the alert issued by the authorities, he does not believe in a major explosion for years.
Like him, many of the 57,000 inhabitants living near this volcano in the Andes mountain range, refuse to evacuate the area despite the request of the authorities and the alert in force since March, when the daily average of seismic tremors inside of the volcano increased from 50 to 12,000.
“I don’t believe it,” said the 73-year-old man, with the gray mustache and cap, when asked about the risk of an eruption. The volcano that ancients call “the sleeping lion” will not erupt for “about 50 years” yet, he says.
The farmer from Viejo Rio Claro, a village nestled at the foot of the mountains of the municipality of Villamaria, one of the areas declared to be at high risk, nevertheless knows the devastating potential of this volcano with eternal snow which culminates at nearly 5,400 meters.
“You could see it very high spitting fire, a color like brick, and the earth was shaking,” he recalls of that night of November 13, 1985, when an avalanche of mud and ash swept down the slopes of the Nevada del Ruiz. “She took away the transformer and people started screaming and running on the road,” he told AFP.
-“pieces of hands”-
The next day, “there were pieces of hands, arms, half bodies, stripped heads,” said the man next to a small church that remained intact. The tragedy devastated the neighboring town of Armero and caused a total of 25,000 deaths and almost as many victims.
The face of Omaira Sanchez, the 13-year-old who died in front of cameras around the world after three days of agony in a waterhole, has become a symbol of tragedy.
It is considered the worst natural disaster in the history of Colombia and one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions of the 20th century.
Ten years ago, the volcano located on the border of the departments of Tolima and Caldas, erupted again, but with activity that was limited to sporadic projections of ash.
Today, his situation could resemble that of “a patient in intensive care who remains relatively stable but is not ready to go to intermediate care” or to leave, illustrates Lina Castaño, technical manager of the Volcanological Observatory and seismology of the city of Manizales, near the volcano.
“The threat is latent (…) We must not let our guard down,” warns Félix Girlado, head of risk management for the Caldas department. “The situation has become normal for people and this is not what we want as a state. We visit them so that they understand that the threat is present,” he explains.
In the meantime, William Suarez continues to survey the steep paths of his village in peace.
21/05/2023 14:33:21 – Villamaría (Colombia) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
