Omayra Sánchez

Colombian volcano victim (1972–1985)

Omayra Sánchez Garzón (August 28, 1972 – November 16, 1985) was a Colombian girl trapped and killed by a landslide when she was 13 years old. The landslide was caused by the 1985 eruption of the volcano Nevado del Ruiz in Armero, Tolima. Volcanic debris mixed with ice to form massive lahars (volcanically induced mudflows, landslides, and debris flows), which rushed into the river valleys below the mountain, killing about 25,000 people and destroying Armero and 13 other villages. After the lahar demolished her home, Sánchez was trapped beneath the debris of her house, where she remained in water for three days, as rescue workers did not have any way to render life saving medical care if they amputated her hopelessly pinned legs. Her plight was documented by journalists as she transformed from calmness into agony while relief workers tried to comfort her. After 60 hours of struggling, she died, likely as a result of either gangrene or hypothermia. Her death highlighted the failure of officials to respond correctly to the threat of the volcano. A photograph of Sánchez taken by the photojournalist Frank Fournier shortly before she died was published in news outlets around the world. It was later designated the World Press Photo of the Year for 1986. Sánchez has been remembered in music, literature, and commemorative articles.

On November 13, 1985, the volcano Nevado del Ruiz erupted. At 9:09 pm of that evening, pyroclastic flows exploding from the crater melted the mountain's icecap, forming lahars which cascaded into river valleys below. One lahar, consisting of three pulses, did most of the damage. Traveling at per second (~13.5 miles per hour, ~22 km/h), the first pulse enveloped most of the town of Armero, killing as many as 20,000 people; the two later pulses weakened buildings. Another lahar killed 1,800 people in nearby Chinchiná. In total 23,000 people were killed and 13 villages in addition to Armero were destroyed. Loss of life was exacerbated by the authorities' failure to take costly preventive measures in the absence of clear signs of imminent danger. During September 1985, as earthquakes and phreatic eruptions rocked the area around the volcano, officials began planning for evacuation. A hazard map was prepared in October;#tag:ref|This was the first hazard map ever prepared for a Colombian volcano. The map was poorly distributed to those at greatest risk: many survivors said they had not known of it, though several major newspapers had featured it. Henry Villegas of the Colombian Institute of Mining and Geology stated that the maps clearly demonstrated Armero would be affected by the lahars, but were "met with strong opposition from economic interests". The Colombian Congress criticised scientific and civil defense agencies for scaremongering, and the government and army were preoccupied with a guerrilla campaign in Bogotá, the national capital. The death toll was increased by the lack of early warnings, unwise land use, as villages were built in the likely path of lahars, the Armero tragedy (as it came to be known) was the second deadliest volcanic disaster of the 20th century (surpassed only by the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée). It was the fourth deadliest eruption recorded since 1500 AD. Its lahars were the deadliest in volcanic history. while Barragán (1987) said that she was trapped up to her waist. On the third night, Sánchez began hallucinating, saying that she did not want to be late for school, Near the end of her life, Sánchez's eyes reddened, her face swelled, and her hands whitened. At one point she asked the people to leave her so they could rest. Hours later the workers returned with a pump and tried to save her, but her legs were bent under the concrete as if she was kneeling, and it was impossible to free her without severing her legs. Lacking the surgical equipment to save her from the effects of an amputation, the doctors present agreed that it would be more humane to let her die. most likely from gangrene or hypothermia. As the public became aware of Sánchez's situation through the media, her death became used as a symbol of the failure of officials to properly assist victims who allegedly could have been saved. Colombia's Minister of Defense, Miguel Uribe, said he "understood criticism of the rescue effort", When he reached Armero at dawn on the 16th, a farmer directed him to Sánchez, who by then had been trapped for nearly three days and was nearly deserted. Fournier later described the town as "very haunting," with "eerie silence" punctuated by screaming. At the time, there was international awareness of the disaster and the controversy concerning responsibility for the destructive aftermath. The image of Sanchez captured international attention. According to an unnamed BBC reporter, "Many were appalled at witnessing so intimately what transpired to be the last few hours of Omayra's life".

The Armero catastrophe happened soon after the M 19 guerrilla group's raid and subsequent Palace of Justice siege on November 6, worsening an already chaotic situation. After Sánchez's death, the Colombian government was blamed for its inaction and general indifference to warning signs prior to the volcano's eruption. The volcano Nevado del Ruiz is still active, according to the Volcano Watch Center in Colombia. Melting only 10 percent of the ice would produce mudflows with a volume of as much as —similar to the mudflow that destroyed Armero in 1985. Such lahars can travel up to along river valleys in a few hours. The city of Armero no longer exists. The site was commemorated as a memorial with Christian crosses and a small monument to Sánchez. During the years after the eruption, Sánchez was commemorated repeatedly, especially by newspapers like El Tiempo. Many victims of the disaster were commemorated, but Sánchez in particular has attracted lasting attention in popular poetry, novels, and music. For example, a punk rock band formed in Chile in 2008 named themselves Omayra Sánchez; they express their "discontent that they feel with the negligence on the part of the people who in this day and age run the world". Adiós, Omayra: La catástrofe de Armero (1988), written by Eduardo Santa as a response to the eruption, depicts the girl's last days of life in detail and cites her in its introduction as an eternal symbol of the catastrophe. To try to prevent repetition of such a disaster, the government of Colombia created the Oficina Nacional para la Atención de Desastres (National Office for Disaster Preparedness), now known as the Dirección de Prevención y Atención de Desastres (Directorate for Disaster Prevention and Preparedness). All Colombian cities were directed to plan for natural disasters. A species of cricket found in the region of the Armero tragedy was newly described during 2020 and named Gigagryllus omayrae in memory of Omayra Sánchez.