Late Friday night on March 31, 2017, a torrential (an extremely strong) rainstorm hit Colombian city of Mocoa’s Putumayo province, creating a massive mudslide, sending water and debris into the homes of hundreds up through the morning hours of April 1.
The event took place while many were asleep and although the area was warned about the storm beforehand, many couldn’t get out in time. The storm has ended up killing at least 254 people, injuring 400, and has left around 200 missing.
The whole event has devastated the community of Mocoa, and 17 other neighborhoods in the area, with thousands of rescue workers and families looking frantically for missing friends and family members in the aftermath of this travesty. The abundance of rain was caused by three rivers surrounding the city of Mocoa to overflow, which allowed mud to travel downstream towards the houses, through cars, and completely demolish everything it came across.
Source: The Mercury News
In 2015, Colombia faced a similar natural disaster, except instead of a mudslide a landslide in northwest Colombia killed at least 80 people, injuring 37, destroying homes and facilities.
Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos visited the devastated city the next day to express his deepest condolences to all those affected and promised to restore the electricity and water services to the area as soon as possible.
President Santos, along with thousand of others across the world, took to twitter to spread awareness to what happened in Colombia and spread love to all those affected using the hashtags #TodosConMocoa and #MocoaSomosTodos.
Donations to help in the rebuilding effort in Colombia are being taken by the Colombian Red Cross and Litros Que Ayudan.
