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Unusual Historic Crises and Calamities

Khalid Elhassan April 16, 2020 34 min

21. The Armero Tragedy

As lava erupted from Nevado del Ruiz, it melted the mountain’s glaciers, turning them into torrents of water. The result was four huge lahars of mudslides, landslides, and volcanic debris, racing down the mountainside at 30 miles an hour, and picking up speed as they reached and were channeled into mountain gullies.

The mud and debris flow struck nearby settlements, causing particular devastation in the town of Armero. There, about 20,000 of the town’s 29,000 population were killed in what came to be known as the Armero tragedy. Thousands more died in nearby towns and villages. The haunting images of one victim, in particular, 13-year-old Omayara Sanchez and the fight to save her life, circulated around the world and was televised live. She was trapped in the mud and debris for days as rescuers frantically tried to free her, before she died of exposure on live TV.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.