Colombia's Agony

March 12, 2009 12:27 PM

In 1985, less than a week after the Palace of Justice siege in Bogota left 11 members of the Supreme Court dead, the ice-clad Nevada del Ruiz volcano erupted, wiping out the Colombian town of Armero in a huge wave of mud and water. Most links contain disturbing and NSFW images.

The tragedy killed 20,000 of the town's 29,000 population, and a huge international emergency response was launched. The event is best remembered however for the image of the plight of Omayra Sanchez taken by photographer Frank Fournier. The 13 year old was trapped by debris for 60 hours up to her neck (17 seconds in) in water. Efforts were made to free her, but after nearly 3 days she died from gangrene and hypothermia.

posted by jontyjago (8 comments total)

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posted by leotrotsky at 12:38 PM on March 12

I still to this day remember her on tv day after day, trapped under her house, slowly, dying of exposure, day after relentless day. She was just about my age and I just was so drawn to her story and for the first time as a child I realized how helpless we really were in the world. Here we were watching her die from thousands of miles away and no one could do anything about it.

Haunts my memories. Something that still wakes me up in the night.
posted by Pollomacho at 12:52 PM on March 12

Just curious. Besides cost, why couldn't they have choppered in a caisson of the necessary dimensions and punped the water out so they could address what was trapping her legs. As I am reading it they had almost 72 hours to work with. What am I missing here?
I wonder. You know. If she had been "someone"
posted by notreally at 1:10 PM on March 12

Sigh.... puMped.
posted by notreally at 1:11 PM on March 12

I was reading about this yesterday, actually. Someone did bring a pump and it failed.

Still, I imagine I would have dunked in and figured something out by feel. What happened to her is pretty horrifying.
posted by snsranch at 1:16 PM on March 12

Most links contain disturbing and NSFW images.

One would have hoped most workplaces wouldn't mind staff learning a bit about a recent tragedy (as opposed to the usual SFW rubbish people read when they should be working).
posted by rhymer at 1:39 PM on March 12

.

P.S. Bobby Jindal: Fuck you, you fucking fuck.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:40 PM on March 12 [4 favorites has favorites]

notreally, it's nice to imagine such a fantastic, prepared, immediate and effective response, but the reality is that even when such resources are available and all agencies are prepared and no red tape or money blockages stand in the way, you still have to get it to the location where it's needed on time with the requisite crew to operate it.

She was trapped along with dozens (scores? hundreds?) of other survivors. Most of them died. It wasn't a Jessica McClure situation.

In any case, it was not so much the failure of the rescue efforts, as those available to an impoverished and remote area seem to have been implemented, as it was a failure of recognizing the dangers and preparing the population. Far better to avoid the accident than to pry the person out of the car.
posted by dhartung at 3:47 PM on March 12