U.S. Agencies Rushing Aid to Colombia : Tents, Blankets and Generators Shipped to Stricken Nation

Disaster relief agencies, still recovering from the enormous task of supplying aid to Mexican earthquake victims, began marshaling assistance Thursday for Colombians who saw their families, farms and homes washed away by volcanic mud and overflowing rivers.

One of those agencies, World Vision International, which is still aiding the stricken in Mexico and Ethiopia, had its own dead to mourn. Several Colombian staff members of the organization and 178 children, ages 5 to 15, died at a day school in the destroyed town of Armero. Americans sponsors’ contributions of $18 a month paid for the children’s food and education.

By midday Thursday, material assistance from official and private agencies was already in the relief pipeline to Colombia. The assistance included tents, blankets and portable generators, as well as a dozen helicopters dispatched from U.S. bases in Panama, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Agency for International Development.

“We needed helicopters very badly, and they are now on their way to Colombia from Panama,” said Humberto Cerna, an official in the Colombian Embassy in Washington “We have requested they send as many as they can. Every consulate is opening an account to receive (monetary) help.”

Aid From U.S.

In addition, the Reagan Administration said it is sending several experts to Colombia to help the government deal with the disaster.

The U.S. Embassy in Bogota gave $25,000 in emergency aid, an AID official arrived in Colombia Thursday night to assess additional needs, and a U.S. Geological Survey expert on volcanoes was also en route to advise the Colombians on the risk of further eruptions.

The American Red Cross in Los Angeles is having to turn away offers of canned goods and locally donated blood because “we can’t ship that quickly or cost-effectively down there,” said spokesman Ralph Wright.

Supplies can be shipped more efficiently from Red Cross warehouses in Panama, said Wright. Dr. Rueda Montana, president of Colombia’s Red Cross, announced that “the Colombian Red Cross will issue an appeal for help within the next 24 hours. . . . The absolute need is for cash contributions. Virtually all necessities are available locally, with the exception of tents.”

Eight Colombian government helicopters are ferrying relief workers into the Armero area, where, Montana said, the mud is 25 feet deep in places, and where “there are very many injured among the survivors.”

Eruption Seemed Impossible

At the Los Angeles Red Cross office, volunteer Luis Eduardo Garcia, a former government tourism director in Colombia, said residents of Armero believed that it was “impossible” that the volcano, “covered with perpetual snow,” would erupt, but he added there was little danger to tourists who frequented the ski resort on its slopes.

An estimated 30,000 to 40,000 Colombian nationals live in Los Angeles, according to the consulate here. Like the 11 other Colombian consulates in the United States, the Los Angeles consulate on Wilshire Boulevard has opened bank accounts to handle aid donations.

“We got lots of calls this morning (from Colombian nationals), asking what help they could give,” said Vice Consul Silvia Paredes. She said callers were particularly shocked because the stricken area, which was “completely erased,” is “one of the richest of Colombia.” Its production of rice and cotton earned Armero the name the “white city of Colombia.” The area’s coffee crop makes it a valuable export region as well.

“It was a big, a tremendous blow to the economy of the country,” she said.

Didn’t Want to Leave

Her office is also working with the Red Cross to provide temporary shelter for the living, many of them farmers now without farmland. “Campesinos don’t leave their land that easily. They didn’t want to leave their homes--they couldn’t believe there was any danger. It happened from one moment to the next.”

World Vision in Monrovia, a religious charity which has channeled millions of dollars into relief programs in 80 countries, has scheduled airlifts of tents, blankets and medical supplies out of Miami and New York for this weekend.

But this disaster was more personal for World Vision’s staff than most, said spokesman Brian Bird. “We do believe we’ve lost everybody in our Armero project,” named Colegio Emery, in the heart of Armero, Bird said.

Two World Vision employees flew over the area Thursday, and radioed that “Armero no longer exists,” Bird added. “You can’t even see where there was a town.”

World Vision maintains six other child care centers in the area. “We don’t know whether we’ve lost lives there, but it doesn’t appear to be as devastated as Armero,” Bird said.

American Sponsors

The children in each center are sponsored, often by Americans, for $18 a month, because their parents cannot care for them. Children and sponsors exchange letters and photos, and grow very close, Bird said. World Vision as yet has been unable to notify sponsors about the fate of particular children.

“It’s very hard for us. We have worked for so many years to try to improve living conditions in the world, and for this one project, it has been washed away within seconds,” said Bird.

World Vision has established a toll-free number, 1-800-423-4200, for cash pledges for volcano relief. Its vice-president, Bill Kliewer, is flying to Colombia today with supplies, to assess the needs of the countryside.

Valerie Wildman, spokeswoman for Operation California, which has flown aid missions to Southeast Asia and Ethiopia, said that “the biggest difficulty is that so many of the needs we’re coming across are the same needs we’re still trying to fulfill for Mexico--to shelter the homeless.”