(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Residents of the Colombian town hit by a massive landslide began a difficult clean-up yesterday, as rescuers resumed the increasingly hopeless search for those still missing after a disaster that claimed at least 62 lives.
After spending the night in shelters, residents of La Margarita, the hardest-hit town, returned to the ruins of their community to search for missing family members or shovel out the mud that filled their homes.
Rescue workers meanwhile resumed the search for victims, which they had to call off overnight as the heavy rains that triggered the landslide continued pounding the area.
"It's horrible. There are no words for it. It's like a dream, like coming in for a landing when you see the magnitude of the disaster," said Nora Quinceno, who was sleeping like most locals when the disaster struck around 3am on Monday.
At least 40 people were injured in the landslide, which tore through the municipality of Salgar in the mountains of northwest Colombia after the Liboriana river burst its banks and sent a flood of mud rushing down a ravine.
"I had a daughter and granddaughter living there who were swept away. We're at a loss, we don't have anywhere to go," Omar Londono, another survivor, said.
Electricity and water service have still not been restored to the area, but dump trucks arrived to cart off loads of mud and debris.
President Juan Manuel Santos, who visited the area on Monday, promised residents: "We will not forget you."
"No one can bring the deceased back to you, that is something we deeply regret. But we have to get through this disaster and look to the future with bravery and strength," he said.
Several children were orphaned and are being cared for by the Colombian Institute for Family Wellbeing, he said.
Santos announced that each family affected would receive $7,000, and promised infrastructure improvements to try to prevent such disasters in the future.
Ex-president turned opposition leader Alvaro Uribe also visited the area, which is near where he grew up.
"I met a woman who was holding her three-day-old grandson. His parents are lost," he told radio station RCN.
"It's very painful what we saw." More than 350 emergency workers have been dispatched to the area to assess the damage, set up shelters, distribute drinking water, treat the injured and provide psychological counseling.
Santa Margarita, which the local mayor said was practically "wiped off the map," is one of four towns that make up Salgar, a municipality of 17,000 people in the department of Antioquia.
Rescue workers met first thing yesterday morning in a Salgar church to co-ordinate the complicated search for victims.
"The rain fell all night, the river's current swelled again and that is going to make recovering victims very difficult," said Alfredo Vergara, the chief of the Salgar fire department.
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