In Mocoa Colombia, the surge swept away houses, bridges, vehicles and trees, leaving piles of wrecked timber and brown mud, army images from the area showed. The mudslides struck late Friday after days of torrential rain. The latest death toll is 154. It is a truly terrible figure.
The rivers flooded causing a big avalanche, the number is rising enormously and at considerable speed. There are “hundreds of families we have not yet found and whole neighborhoods have disappeared. There are lots of people in the streets, lots of people displaced and many houses have collapsed.
A thousand emergency personnel were helping the rescue effort. Mocoa, a town of 40,000 people, was left without power or running water. The Red Cross planned to set up a special unit in Mocoa Saturday afternoon to help relatives search for their loved ones. Some of the hospital workers came to help even while there are own relatives remained missing.