During the morning, Captain Álvaro Farfán, fire chief of the Cundinamarca department, where Quetame, the affected municipality, is located, reported that the search was temporarily suspended due to the rains since it represented a risk for the personnel. The tragedy occurred shortly before midnight on Monday when an avalanche of mud and stones caused by heavy rainfall destroyed about twenty homes in Quetame, located about 60 kilometers south of the capital, Bogotá.
On Tuesday, emergency agencies managed to recover 15 bodies, including those of four minors, before darkness forced them to suspend work. However, at this time, 13 people are still missing. In addition to the human losses, the avalanche also destroyed a vehicular bridge on the road that connects Bogotá with Villavicencio, the largest city in the southeast of the country, which has around 500,000 inhabitants. Consequently, the highway, one of the main cargo transport routes in Colombia, will remain closed at least until the end of next week, according to what was reported by the Cundinamarca governorate.
The mayor of Quetame, Camilo Parrado, pointed out that in some areas the mud reached up to two meters high. Due to the mountainous geography and the number of watercourses in the region, these types of road slides are common.
The president, Gustavo Petro, proposed on his Twitter account a discussion on fundamental measures for the stabilization of the region, considering the recurrence of this type of disaster. Among his proposals is the configuration of a forest reserve area along the highway and its water tributaries. Likewise, he announced the opening of “five additional flights” between Bogotá and Villavicencio to deal with the emergency.
The rainy season in Colombia generally runs from June to November. Last year, it caused approximately 300 deaths and affected 700,000 people, including an incident in which a bus was engulfed by a landslide in the west of the country, killing 34 people.