This Friday morning, in the middle of the burial of two of the three victims of the avalanche that fell three days ago in Abriaquí, a hidden municipality in the west of Antioquia, several people commented that definitely when death comes for you there is no one who can outwit it.
Half the town turned to the church to say their last goodbye to Jhon Fernando Ramírez and his daughter Dayan Sofía, 12 years old, Well, on Thursday afternoon the funeral had already taken place. María Alejandra Cardona (10 years old), this man’s stepdaughter who would be between 32 and 35 years old.
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All three were victims of the landslide. which occurred around eight o’clock on Tuesday evening in the town of Potreros, in the rural area of Abriaquí.
The story of the death of these three members of the same family is marked by paradoxes. To begin with, The area where the events took place was not the most affected in the town. when the sky seemed to collapse in a monumental downpour, because today there are more victims in Santa Teresa, a sector in which 30 families are without means of subsistence because their establishments for the processing of alluvial gold were carried away by the rising of a ravine. .
There are also incredible circumstances that make one think that that definitely seemed to be the time of those who died. It turns out that Maria Alejandra did not even live on the site, but he lived with his father and his older sister, Dana, in his grandparents’ house, in Potreros 2, and Since his parents are separated, that night he had gone to visit his mother, Darly Cardona, who was Jhon Fernando’s partner.
Also, curiously, the house of the Ramírez Cardona family, located on the highway, on the road that reaches Potreros from the urban area of Abriaquí, It was practically intact, only with some damage to the roof and on either side you can see the traces of the two masses of land. which miraculously did not affect her considerably. According to the neighbours, this is explained because the first collapse managed to knock down the wall that was right next to the bed where the couple was sleeping and when they felt it, they jumped to safety.
The idea was to take shelter in a neighbouring house higher up, so Fernando fumbled with some clothes in a backpack – there was no light – and took the girls by the hands to flee down the other side. He had already taken them out onto the road and was halfway out, holding his wife with the other hand, when the other landslide swept over all three of them.
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“She remained holding his hand but the earth dragged her to the base of the collapse, with her body trapped halfway, and they disappeared before her eyes,” said Darly Montoya, one of Leidy Cardona’s relatives.
It was also coincidental the call from Dana, the eldest daughter, and that she could answer because she had her cell phone on her. This way he was able to report what was happening and alerts were activated in the town through the mayor’s WhatsApp group.
The mayor, Daniel Alberto Salas, says that although the path is only 3 kilometers from the urban area and the journey usually takes 15 minutes, that night the firefighters and other support staff from the municipal administration took out the victims, already deceased, at just 1:45 am because several landslides had occurred on the same road and it took them a long time to arrive because it was not even possible to walk across.
“First there was Fernando, followed by María Alejandra and then Dayan, all together, just as they had gone out onto the road, they remained”added Darly Montoya.
Fernando was not well known in Abriaquí because he was from Valle del Cauca and arrived two years ago with his daughter, when he joined Leidy Cardona. On the other hand, María Alejandra was quite popular, first as a member of a family with roots for several generations in that municipality and also when she was seen holding the hand of her mother, who works in a restaurant located in the park of Abriaquí.
María Alejandra was in her fifth year of primary school at the rural campus of the La Milagrosa educational institution, while Dayán was in sixth grade at the urban facilities of the same school.
And a final paradox: Fernando had been warned that the water was coming out very chocolatey these days, that it was not normal, and he didn’t take it seriously. because he smiled. There was no history of collapses there, but for the neighbors who told them it was the obvious sign that there was a blockage at the top of the mountain, the same one that would have caused the tragedy.
Between Wednesday and Thursday, staff from the Dagrd (Administrative Department of Disaster Risk Management of Antioquia) evaluated the situation in Abriaquí and, according to Mayor Salas, one of the conclusions of the expert report is that it will be very difficult to recover the road that It goes from town to Potreros. The evacuation of five homes was also necessary.
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In the Santa Teresa sector, another avalanche caused a rise in the ravine that passes by there, which descended with such fury that it destroyed 30 artisanal mills in its path used by ancestral miners to process the gold they extract from the water source.
“This is probably the only part of the country where you still see these mills. With these miners the administration does a very nice job because they do not use any chemicals, they are already formalized and are in the process of organization,” said the local leader.
Only one mill remained standing, which calls into question the livelihood of the mining families who lost their production facilities.
