The devastation left by the avalanche in Armero 40 years ago forever marked the lives of those who participated in the rescue efforts.
Among them, Frenchman Piére Marie Sarant, logistics coordinator for Doctors Without Borders (MSF), witnessed firsthand the magnitude of the tragedy and the fight to save lives in the midst of chaos.
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“One of the most shocking things were the trapped Armerites, including boys, girls, older adults, many with gangrene, trying to get out of the mud”Sarant told The Time.
On November 13, 1985, an avalanche of mud and stones, with an estimated volume of thirty million cubic meters, buried Armero and caused the death of nearly twenty-three thousand of its twenty-nine thousand inhabitants.
Sarant, who was then in his early 30s and had already faced emergencies in several countries, was appointed to lead the MSF mission in Colombia.
“Our team was made up of a war surgeon, a nurse who knew Colombia well, and me, a logistics specialist with experience in disasters. We were willing to adapt, knowing that the headquarters in Paris listened to us and would send us the appropriate help,” Sarant explained to the aforementioned media.
The impact of the tragedy was evident from the first moment. Upon arriving in Bogotá, Sarant was transferred on a military plane to Mariquita and was able to observe the magnitude of the disaster from the air.
“It flew over the area and indicated the names of the towns, this allowed me to have a complete view from above to understand the dimension of the tragedy in the region,” Sarant said.
The Doctors Without Borders team landed with twenty-two tons of medical supplies and shelter materials, but the situation on the ground required much more than health care.
“The chaos was impressive due to the number of missing people, those who had been displaced and those who were injured”said Pierre Marie Sarant.
The health emergency was worsened by the appearance of sand gangrene, a serious infection caused by mud in deep wounds.. “A complicated medical emergency after a deep wound infected by mud develops”Sarant explained.
The shortage of supplies forced us to organize the shipment of chlorhexidine and alcohol from Paris on commercial planeseach accompanied by a member of Doctors Without Borders to ensure rapid delivery.
Coordination with local hospitals and the creation of new health teams were decisive. “It was vital to be able to distribute the medicines between the different hospitals, as soon as the planes arrived in Bogotá it helped save many lives”assured Pierre Marie Sarant.
For a year, MSF and other organizations worked in Armero and nearby municipalities such as Lérida and Mariquita, focusing on the construction of health posts and hospitals, as well as the provision of decent shelter conditions.
Sarant participated in these actions for nine months and, after the most critical phase, collaborated in medical evaluations in other regions of the country. Four decades later, the memory of the tragedy is still present for him.
“Over time, memories fade. It seems that human beings need to forget. One of the fundamental reasons for commemorations could be to review the lessons learned from catastrophes and to be prepared”he reflected.
The tragedy that Colombia experienced in 1985, when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano devastated Armero, marked the beginning of a humanitarian mission that would last for decades.
“This was the first time that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had faced an emergency of that magnitude.. When they told me that I had to travel to Colombia to look for thousands of people under the rubble, I shuddered,” said Piére Marie, the first logistics and supplies coordinator for Doctors Without Borders in the country.
The image of Omayra Sánchez, the 13-year-old girl who resisted three days trapped under the rubble, was engraved in the national memory. While the rescue teams worked for more than 14 months, the international organization, founded in 1971, faced a scenario where “the rescue organizations could not cope with the thousands of dead and injured.”
In the first days after the disaster, MSF mobilized unprecedented resources for the region. “There were two gliders, one from France and the other from England. They are specialized machines to move mud. It was difficult because of the temperature in Armero – more than 35 degrees – and because of the impressive amount of mud, which dried quickly and thousands of people were trapped, unable to get out. It was frustrating not to achieve the rescues we expected and later we began to build a clinic in Mariquita, the nearby municipality,” explained Piére Marie.
The work of Doctors Without Borders extended to municipalities such as Lérida and Lebanon, where they organized health brigades, and in Armero they delivered 22 tons of medical supplies. After a year in the area, the team moved to Chocó, facing new challenges.
“What are two French people doing walking around here? Some armed men told us and they detained us for five days and five nights. It was the first time something like this happened to me, I was 34 years old.. In Colombia, at that time, Doctors Without Borders was not known and we were reaching where there were no hospitals, health centers, nothing. Then they released us and we managed to install a project in that area,” the coordinator recalled.
Over four decades, the organization has implemented 51 projects in rural and urban areas of Colombia, with the purpose of offering medical-humanitarian care to communities without access to health.
Their intervention was not limited to emergencies such as Armero or the earthquake in Armenia; They have also treated patients with diseases such as tuberculosis, victims of sexual violence, migrants and populations affected by outbreaks of yellow fever and malaria.
