Smell of Death Lingers Over Scene of Eruption : Efforts Turning From Dead to the Homeless

The Guayabal church was full of disaster-relief supplies Sunday, so the priest said Mass from a second-story window next door.

Loudspeakers carried his voice to the plaza below, but most people there seemed to be paying little heed to his words. In two long lines, they waited intently under a hot morning sun for their daily rations of food.

Guayabal is the main center for refugees from Armero, the Colombian town that was destroyed last week by a volcanic peak’s violent discharge of floodwater and mud.

22,000 Thought Dead

The Health Ministry estimates that more than 22,000 people--including 20,000 in and near Armero--were killed by the torrents of mud that started below the volcano’s melting icecap. Most of the dead will remain buried under the mud.

With rescue efforts now all but finished, Colombia’s attention is increasingly focused on the homeless and displaced survivors of the disaster. And, by most accounts, relief efforts have been largely successful so far.

The Health Ministry said Sunday that nearly 64,000 people were left homeless, 8,376 from Armero. Thousands of them have come to Guayabal.

The town’s stores are out of food, so refugees and residents alike depend on donated rations. However, in Sunday’s relief lines at the plaza, most people who were asked by a reporter said they were getting enough to eat.

After a long wait, they were given bags full of canned goods, rice, blocks of brown sugar, cookies and other food.

“Muchas gracias, “ said Carlos Sanchez, a gray-haired little man in a ragged shirt as he received his bulging bag.

Sanchez, his wife and three children are staying in a school, one of several refuges that have been set up in Guayabal. Other people from Armero are staying with relatives and friends here.

The Sanchezes left Armero as it was being destroyed late Wednesday and walked the five miles to Guayabal.

Clothes on Their Backs

“We came with what we were wearing, nothing more,” Sanchez said. Although piles of used clothing covered half the floor of the church, he said he had not asked for any. “Maybe later,” he said.

Jairo Camargo, a Civil Defense official at the church, said only a small amount of clothing had been handed out, to people needing it most urgently. “First, we are distributing just food, and later we will distribute clothes,” Camargo said.

The only notably scarce food item so far, he said, has been cooking oil. “Things run out . . . but then more comes,” he said.

Marlene Padilla, 36, waited in another food line. She said she had eight relatives from Armero staying at her Guayabal home, and they need a lot of food. “They keep giving it to us, thank God,” she said.

7-Hour Wait for Nothing

Saturday, however, Padilla had waited nearly seven hours in line but got nothing. She said food distribution stopped abruptly when word spread that the Nevado del Ruiz volcano had erupted again.

“Everyone took off running,” she said. Guayabal was virtually abandoned as people rushed for high ground to avoid a new disaster. But it turned out to be a false alarm.

An estimated 85 people in and near Guayabal were killed by mud-laden floodwaters in last week’s disaster.

Dr. Santiago Rojas, a military physician working at an emergency clinic on the edge of town, said thieves stole needed surgical instruments from the clinic while it was unattended during Saturday’s panic. Before the theft, he said, the only medical materials in short supply were antibiotics and narcotic painkillers.

4,500 People Injured

The Health Ministry said more than 4,500 people were injured in the volcano disaster. The most seriously injured have been taken to about 40 hospitals, and the others are receiving outpatient care.

At the San Jose Hospital in nearby Mariquita, Dr. Sergio Patino said there was a shortage of surgical equipment and tetanus vaccine. Patino belongs to a 36-member emergency medical team sent by the Mexican army.

Colombian army officers coordinating relief supply transshipments at the Mariquita airport said that, to their knowledge, tetanus vaccine was the only important shortage. Maj. Arturo Cifuentes said personal hygiene supplies such as soap, toothbrushes and combs were also scarce.

‘No Major Problems’

“In general terms, there are no major problems,” Cifuentes said. He said shipments being dispatched by air and land to refugee centers were keeping up with needs there, and excess supplies were being sent to warehouses near Mariquita for storage.

No Storage Capacity

“We don’t have storage capacity here,” he said. Three tents near the airport runway were overflowing with food, clothing and medical supplies. He added that all of the supplies, except for 60 bags of beans from the United States, had come from elsewhere in Colombia.

At the Bogota airport, donated supplies from foreign countries piled up during the first days after the disaster.

A British military officer helping with distribution logistics said there was “quite a lot” of goods awaiting distribution but that the backlog was being reduced.

Paul Bell, an adviser with the U.S. Office of Disaster Relief, toured three refugee centers over the weekend and reported that aid efforts were proceeding smoothly. “There is no shortage of medical attention, medicaments, food, water, blankets and clothing,” Bell said.

U.S. Helicopters Arrive

Twelve American helicopters arrived Friday and Saturday to help with rescue work and to carry refugees and supplies. They brought in 350,000 pounds of supplies and 100 American military relief workers.

U.S. Ambassador Charles A. Gillespie said there was “very little confusion” in the Colombian relief operations.

“There are plenty of supplies on hand and more in the pipeline,” Gillespie said. “The air is full of helicopters getting people where they can be treated and supplies to distribution points.”

The newspaper El Tiempo said Sunday that at least 20 air shipments of relief supplies had landed at Colombian airports.

Donations in money also have poured in. The Colombian Red Cross reported that Red Cross organizations in 15 European countries had contributed a total of $2.3 million, which will be used to buy food, clothing, medicine and other supplies.

In Washington, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced that six American geologists have been sent to Colombia to monitor the volcano and to make predictions of possible future activity.

“The analysis from our relief experts is that the rescue phase is now completed,” an AID official said.