The Warning Went Unheeded - Yungay Tragedy - Peru 1970

May 1970 - the seemingly idyllic town of Yungay was literally wiped off the map - along with the 25,000 people who were there.... It's a tragedy almost beyond belief, and it had been predicted eight years previously....

Although focused primarily on disasters, this channel is all about the interesting, the strange, the unsolved, the tragic. Our world has a varied history full of terrible tragedies, bizarre tales, unexplained events, and extravagant people. I hope you enjoy some of the fascinating stories we have here.

#History #Disasters

[Lucius_Shiro]

Hey, Peruvian here. I really like that there's a video in English about what happened in Yungay. Sadly, this story is no longer taught in Peruvian History. Now it is just some kind of legend told by grandpas.

Thank you for translating this story into English and thank you for not letting it die.

And, as always, Viva El Perú! You are doing a great job!

[ClefairyRox]

I've never heard of this disaster. That's absolutely horrible. And it was entirely preventable, too...
The clown that saved those kids was a hero. But its heartbreaking to hear that most of those kids lost their entire families.

[TileGuyJesse]

I just realized that this didn't happen in the middle of the night when everyone was caught unaware but during the day which means everyone heard it, looked up, saw it coming, screamed, tried to run and were then silenced in just moments. Everyone. Tragic!

[andrewkelley]

"disrupting public tranquility" sounds like a 1984 dystopian excuse. I feel bad for the people of Yungay, but for nobody in the Peruvian government.

[manuelmontiel]

@ The Ranen's Eye • Thank you for narrating the account of this tragic event.
I was 12 years old and lived in
Lima Peru at the time and even though we were about 250 miles south of the epicenter the seismic power we felt was incredible . It was far stronger than the Northridge and Whittier narrows earthquakes in Los Angeles California which I also lived thru.
The force was so great that it would lift the ground up and down nearly 5 feet in waves as far as you could see down the main Avenue.
Like a giant blanket . It realigned your mental parameters of what natures power and what you previously thought could be possible.

[goffik]

Absolutely staggering. Not only the horrendous death toll, but also the facts. I can't quite get my head around house sized boulders moving significantly faster than a jet-powered airliner. Terrifying. One of the worst things is what this disaster has in common with so many others throughout history... the ignorance of authorities, who choose to ignore very clear warnings.

Really enjoy your videos, by the way. Well researched, well written, well narrated... and no ridiculous background music. Keep it up.

[PikaDamos]

I remember learning about this back in 1990 when I was a little kid on the Compton Encyclopedia Disk. I told my university professor about this event and he did not believe me. I am so glad that I stood firm.

[luismercado]

I visited Yungay around a decade ago. Something I'll never forget is a church that was still peaking over the dirt, but it was literally cut open in half; some meters down the road, you could see a huge rock (4-5 meters radius) laying there, also half buried. Only by looking at them you knew what happened, the mere thought of rocks this large falling breaking buildings like nothing is far too terrifying

[Hartford]

This one left me speechless... never heard of this incident before. It's unimaginable.

[Tom_Samad]

Massive respect to the clown who saved all those children.

[saragrant]

I’m a historian, have studied history for two decades- and had never heard of this!! What a sad, evil situation. These people were absolutely sacrificed by a government so corrupt it’s sick.

[luismarcialvergaradiaz]

As a peruvian who went there in late 2014 or 2015, the place is now a "cementery", it's pretty much now a tourist attraction, palm like trees, a replica of an old church, tombs and the remains of a bus that looks like it was crushed by something really heavy. The place looks calm but when you know what happened, it has an eerie feeling of how a town was there and dissapeared after one day

[terryt]

This is yet another absolutely horrific disaster that I had never heard of, and am now aware of only by virtue of this outstanding channel. This one is
particularly rough and heartbreaking---another example of authorities that had been warned of a significant hazard well ahead of time and chose to
ignore it. In this case, they actively suppressed that it even be spoken of. To say that what happened is of biblical proportions is absolutely on
the mark. And an entire village and 20+ thousand people with it are left buried where they were when it happened. This entire event is beyond
conception; I don't think I'll ever be able to wrap my head around it. Thanks so much, Raven Eye. These are stories that absolutely must
be told, and the way you do it is completely riveting.

[masterskrain]

Sadly, a more and more common response to an outside threat that is reported to a Government entity: "We don't want anyone to say anything that would contradict what WE tell you. We have to cover our rears, no matter how many lives it costs!"

[jof]

9:33 It was almost the same result for my great-grandmother. She was one of the few survivors of the cemetery hill. Even if I grew up in Lima I feel I'm linked with the people of the Callejón de Huaylas, and I will never forget that the site was a little and prosperous paradise before this tragedy.

[FinnishLapphund]

I don't know what is most heartbreaking, all those lives lost, or the survivors that was truly left with just the clothes on their backs.

[elliottprice]

I've read about this disaster in books, but this video made this tragedy so much more vivid. South America seems so prone to disasters with monumental death tolls, another that was featured on this channel was the 1985 Columbian volcano eruption. Such a sad disaster as it happened so quickly

[Limalolz]

Thanks for covering this! As a peruvian, had never seen this disaster on yt before. Very well done.

[kevinbyrne]

Reminds me of the eruption of the Colombian volcano Nevado del Ruiz in 1985. Once again, there were warnings, which were ignored. The eruption melted ice and snow on the volcano, and a lahar poured into the town of Armero, killing half of the town's 50, 000 residents.

[lisaaneepeacock]

A very sad story, but your narration is excellent!