Told to Stay At Home: The Armero Disaster 1985 | Plainly Difficult | Short Documentary

The Armero tragedy occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985, killing over 20,000.

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This weeks Outro Song:

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
01:08 Background
05:49 Disaster
09:06 Aftermath

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MUSIC:
►Intro: Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)
►Outro: Cannon Street (Made By John)

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[PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for watching, check out me other bits!

[endospores]

"mud flows slowly" resonates with me. In the 1999 Vargas tragedy, mud also "flowed slowly", and brough 500 ton rock boulders down the mountain at 100km/h with it.

[NickJohnCoop]

I had the awful feeling that the reason no one was properly informed was because it’d cost too much to do things that way.

[solandri]

There's another eye-searing photo from this in addition to the girl, which isn't reproduced much anymore because of its grisly nature. It's a field of mud with limbs of the dead sticking up. Which if you think about it is a perfect representation of the disaster. The exact death toll is unknown because so many bodies were simply buried never to be seen again.

[QuatrinaVR]

Her picture and story are heartbreaking because the people who desperately wanted to save her could only comfort her as she slowly succumbed

[gabbyn]

I remember this as the Nevado del Ruiz catastrophy. The story of the poor girl stuck in the mud up to her neck went around the world, and many hoped she would survive. But her feet were jammed beneath an invisible obstacle, and so she slowly suffocated.

[sjeason]

The thing about Lahars that are so terrible is that it isn’t just a flow of mud and melt water, they are often boiling hot flows of mud which cool and solidify very quickly. Essentially the flow will burn anyone it touches, and then leave them trapped in a mixture that is like wet concrete, and extremely hard to pull anyone who survived out of them,

[leaglem]

Thanks for covering Armero. For some weeks now, the Nevado del Ruiz has been actively ejecting ash and, coupled with the recent earthquakes in the area, it makes this tragedy quite relevant right now. Let's hope the current government has learned from the past.

[oldwolf]

Was looking at a piece of property, looked at the pictures of the streambed and went 'Oh heck no!'. It was part of an old lahar streambed downstream from Ranier. There was nowhere on the property that was not in mudflow debris, and just because it hasn't erupted lately doesn't make Ranier even in the least 'extinct'. Events like this have... long colored my perceptions. Grew up reading stories of volcanic disasters. Your videos are always appreciated.

[GiveMeCoffee]

2:35 Here someone who lives over the Andes surrounded by volcanoes. People in these regions call 'he' or 'she' each volcano due to local myths and legends. In Ecuador for example, 'huarmi' volcanoes are wifes/women of 'taita' volcanoes, husband/men. When in the morning the sky is clear and you can see some ice on their craters, people will say they had a passionate night together or something on those lines, and when there is seismic activity from a volcanic caldera they will say the volcanoes are having an argument. And that is how you anthropomorphize volcanoes. Captain out.

[GoatzombieBubba]

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.

[lorddrayvon]

To anyone wondering what's there now, not much. There's a museum, mass cemetery and memorial at the site of the town closest to Armero but most of the buildings were torn down or (in most of the cases) just cleared as they were already rubble. The few that do remain standing are dilapidated and falling apart.

[Presca]

As soon as you mentioned the little girl, I immediately remembered the haunting picture of her look, her expression sick with the mud and cold, slowly dying and resolving to her fate and they could do nothing to help dislodge her. It made me cry. It's disgusting the government did this to their own people.

[syrius]

Thanks for covering this! This tragedy is not very well known outside of Colombia, and I am glad to see my country being highlighted. I was only a few months when this happened, but my father worked for four years there alogside others, as part of an effort to restore that community. Thanks again for bringing this to light

Edit: Just please leave the drug jokes out, those are really in poor taste to us Colombians. The drug wars have been the darkest memories a lot of us have, and have caused too much pain over the years. We hate being remembered because of that.

[dycorty]

To me (future volcanologist in training), we absolutely could/should anthropomorphize volcanoes! They're one of the most primordial and sentient seeming things on this planet to me. They bring new life to the surface and create fertile land, but they also can erupt in fiery explosions, sending pyroclastic flows hurtling down the slopes towards cities and villages. They're a direct conduit to the lower layers of the earth, and are the literal reason why we have an atmosphere on this planet! I've always been in awe of volcanoes and their destructive beauty, and disasters like these were the reason why I even wanted to become a volcanologist, to HELP communities living at the base of these volcanoes and to hopefully learn more about signs of future eruptions. Cheers John, thanks for another amazingly well done doc! Keeps me going during cram hours <3

[adriennewilson]

sad fact is that volcanic mud flows are made of concrete and mortar's basic ingredients- water and silica. Theyre often hella hot as well, drying to a hard clay/stone-like consistency when given enough time.

Picture boiling concrete full of boulders, trees, and other debris- ...

[thejudgmentalcat]

I knew about the little girl, but didn't know the government had dropped the ball on the disaster 😢

[fordisfurious]

I remember reading about this as a boy. I didn’t recall that so many people died. What a staggeringly shocking tragedy.

[levistoner]

2:15 - the rust spots behind the wheels on the quarter panels of the animated car was a nice touch. Such attention to detail is why I love this channel so much.

[FloozieOne]

The mayor of Amero was so concerned about the economic cost of an evacuation that he told everyone there was no danger. He even stated that he was so sure of this he would stay even if others "ran away". His body was never found.