page_title: Armero tragedy
section_title: Impact
hierarchical_section_title: Armero tragedy / 1985 activity / Impact
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photograph, the only standing buildings left in the town of Armero in Tolima Department, Colombia, after the w:Armero tragedy.
context_page_description: The Armero tragedy was one of the major consequences of the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. After 69 years of dormancy, the volcano's eruption caught nearby towns unaware, even though the government had received warnings from multiple volcanological organizations to evacuate the area after the detection of volcanic activity two months earlier.
  As pyroclastic flows erupted from the volcano's crater, they melted the mountain's glaciers, sending four enormous lahars down its slopes at 50 kilometers per hour. The lahars picked up speed in gullies and engulfed the town of Armero, killing more than 20,000 of its almost 29,000 inhabitants. Casualties in other towns, particularly Chinchiná, brought the overall death toll to 23,000. Footage and photographs of Omayra Sánchez, a young victim of the tragedy, were published around the world. Other photographs of the lahars and the impact of the disaster captured attention worldwide and led to controversy over the degree to which the Colombian government was responsible for the disaster. A banner at a mass funeral in Ibagué read, "The volcano didn't kill 22,000 people.
context_section_description: The loss of life was exacerbated by the lack of an accurate timeframe for the eruption and the unwillingness of local authorities to take costly preventative measures without clear signs of imminent danger. Because its last substantial eruption had occurred 140 years earlier, in 1845, it was difficult for many to accept the danger presented by the volcano; locals even called it the "Sleeping Lion."
  Hazard maps showing that Armero would be completely flooded after an eruption were distributed more than a month before the eruption, but the Colombian Congress criticized the scientific and civil defense agencies for scaremongering. The eruption occurred at the height of guerrilla warfare in Bogotá, Colombia's capital, and so the government and army were preoccupied at the time of the eruption.
  The day after the eruption, relief workers were appalled at its impact. The lahars had left behind a gray mass which covered the entire town. Armero was dotted with broken trees and horribly disfigured human bodies. Debris from huts and homes protruded from beneath the gray mud. A few bags filled with crops were discovered in the mud. Workers described an acrid smell of "rotting bodies, [...] wood smoke and decaying vegetables." To the horror of these workers, who were scrambling to begin relief efforts, survivors let out moans of pain and agony. The damages were assessed at six billion dollars, an amount approximately one-fifth of Colombia's 1985 Gross National Product.
  As news of the catastrophe spread around the world, the ongoing Colombian presidential election stopped, and the guerrilla fighters stopped their campaign "in view of the painful tragedy that has befallen our [the Colombian fighters] nation." Tickets for Colombian national championship soccer games added a surcharge of five cents to go to relief efforts.
  Scientists who later analyzed the seismograph data noticed that several long-period earthquakes (which begin strongly and then slowly die out) had occurred in the final hours before the eruption. Volcanologist Bernard Chouet said that, "the volcano was screaming 'I'm about to explode'", but the scientists who were studying the volcano at the time of the eruption were not able to read the signal.
caption: Only a few buildings and structures remained standing after the mud and debris flows ravaged the town of Armero.
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