Providencia destroyed by hurricane Iota: chronicle, photos and videos of the survivors – Health

When Carlos was finally able to leave his shelter, nothing he knew was there. His Providence, the island on which he was born, raised and had children, his own paradise, was gone. It was carried away – better – by an unprecedented force of nature in the country, a hurricane called Iota, which became more destructive as it passed through the island, reaching category 5, with powerful gusts, and that he blew and blew until nothing was left standing.

Carlos Archbold Corpus tells his story on the road that leads from the southern area of ​​Providencia to Casa Baja, two of the sectors most affected by the phenomenon. He is with his family and the belongings they were able to save – some furniture, a washing machine, clothes, damp mattresses. They fry lunch in a frying pan, already on firewood: some fish that their friends brought them.

He asked to be heard. I wanted to tell the country about the tragedy that the approximately 6,650 providencians who are estimated to be on the island are going through. That is, the totality, because in this place even those who had nothing lost everything. “We were hit by a category 5 hurricane. For me 99.9 percent of the island was destroyed, all the houses, the poor, the rich, the hotels, the inns, the hospital, everything went away. This is total destruction ”, he starts.

(Also read: The plan to rebuild Providencia in 100 days)

I ask you to send a message to Colombia. And he declares: “We are alive only by the grace of God. Because the hurricane even raised entire houses with people inside. This experience that we lived on Monday morning until the afternoon I would not want anyone to experience it, because this was … I have no words ”. And it breaks.

Large, over 1.80 tall and with a gold chain across his chest, his throat tightens when he remembers what happened. He pauses, tries to take a breath, looks up at the sky for momentum, but can’t. The interview ends. And I can only keep quiet, cut the recording and try to understand.

***
That sea is everything to the islanders. It gives life and sustenance, but this time it brought a hurricane, one of the worst in the country’s history, November 16, a date that will hardly be forgotten in Providencia.

Christian Euscátegui, a meteorologist, explains that the only precedent of a category 5 in the national territory was Matthew in 2016, which passed 120 kilometers from Punta Gallinas, in La Guajira. The Iota traveled 35 kilometers from Providencia being category 4, and 65, when it reached its maximum level, according to data from the National Hurricane Center. That is enough to end everything that gets in the way, says the expert.

And that happened in Providencia. During more than 10 hours of that 16 the island was razed.
Yolanda González, director of Ideam, lived it firsthand and, in technical words, underlines that Iota jumped through categories very quickly. At 1 in the morning it was between categories 3 to 4 and at 4 in the morning it was already reaching category 5 thresholds, with maximum winds exceeding 230 kilometers per hour.

(It may interest you: What can happen if the State does not fulfill the archipelago as promised?)

Under the hurricane

Absolute darkness, glass that explodes, roofs that fly, walls that fall, trees uprooted, water that floods, wind that knocks down. And I lock up. And anguish. Shouts and prayers. And find where to be safe. This is how Providencians and visitors to the island described how it felt to be under the hurricane.

Lais Grams, a 28-year-old from São Paulo, and Iván del Blanco, a 29-year-old from Rio, had been there for two days, on their first visit to Colombia. They remember that they tried to sleep early, in the middle of what by then they believed was just another storm. After midnight, the wind became roaring and began to whip the hotel where they were. “We could only hear what was happening, with great fear, because there was no light. The best decision was to be still and not try to get out ”, they say.

Sheryl Amador is from Providencia, but she lived abroad and decided to return three weeks ago. Precisely to experience Storm Etha and Hurricane Iota. “The hurricane was horrible. The early morning hours passed agonizingly, the roof was blown away by the wind, we were very scared. We ran from the living room to the room and we ended up 10 people sheltered in one room; the windows flew out, the water got in, “says the woman next to the dock, where she is looking for a way out of the island.

Orlage Whitaker had to convert his single-story concrete family home into a makeshift shelter for his community. Some 30 desperate people arrived there who were in the Play House, one of the main shelters set up by the authorities that was destroyed. “Type 2 in the morning was the worst. They only prayed, they were very, very wicked moments, which I hope will never happen again “, manifests.

(We recommend: The idea of ​​an entrepreneur to help with the reconstruction of Providencia)

– How does it feel to be under a hurricane?

–One listens as if many trucks and tractors spent a long time turning the house. And everything moves abruptly. In reality, it cannot be described, in words it is difficult. It is a very great fear.

Boulevard of broken dreams

I arrived in Providencia before noon on Thursday, I was one of the first journalists to do so. I did it by sea, after three and a half hours on a catamaran that sailed upstream 50 nautical miles, loaded with aid and some volunteers for reconstruction. One of them was José Briton, a providence who carried food, water, a power plant and saws. And an enormous anguish to know the fate of his relatives.

When Providence ceased to be a point on the horizon, The first thing José warned me about was the loss of the green of the mountains. That landscape, so typical of unspoilt destinations, seemed devastated by a fire. There were very few trees standing and little by little we began to see the ruins of the homes by the sea.

Already on the dock, the scene of destruction typical of a catastrophe became evident. José explains to me that the building that is on the verge of collapse, next to the pier, was the Aury hotel, once the gateway to the center and one of the tallest buildings, with four floors. The agrarian bank, administrative offices of the mayor’s office and the council operated there.

I’m looking for how to get to the top of that building to better see the impact. A firefighter helps me up. It’s Arnulfo Livingston, 49 years old. “This place is all gone, it was the councilors’ office,” he says, pointing to a space now open to the sky. And yes, the outlook is bleak.

When I ask about his family, he tells me that his brother, Rogino Livingston, passed away. A wall fell on him when he took refuge in the Baptist church of Casa Baja. He is one of the two officially deceased so far.

(In addition: Millionaire donations from the US and China to Colombia due to Hurricane Iota)

On the outskirts of that building is Andrea Vásquez on his motorcycle. She is an islander and a Civil Aeronautics official and agrees to give me a tour. He takes me to his house first. To what remains. “It was two stories, all made of wood and this was my land (on the seashore), and as you can see it was totally destroyed.” The ruins he looks longingly at were a structure painted white and blue that today has a gigantic tree traversed inside it.

Then, I ask Vladimir, 21, who worked at the airport, to keep going around the island. I was lucky. He was the best motorcycle racer possible. As we walk through the desolate streets, he shows me what used to be in each place. Walking through these streets is thinking about what no longer exists. It is a boulevard of broken dreams and providentials who have not had time to assimilate what happened and what is to come. The young man confesses to me that that 16 he cried a lot, because he feared for his daughter, barely one year old. He’s eager to get her off the island.

We arrive at what remains of the mayor’s office, which now functions as a hospital, since the island’s health post lost its entire roof and much of its infrastructure. On one stretcher is a woman with a fractured tibia and fibula, on another, an older adult with a left arm injury, apparently a fracture as well.

Érika Palacio Barker, coordinator of the department’s emergency and emergency and disaster regulatory center, confirms that most of the cases treated are patients of blows and falls and hypertensive crisis due to the anguish experienced in the community. Until that day – Thursday – 10 injured had been referred to San Andrés because they required a second level of complexity. The rest are treated there and in a field hospital that is getting up in a hurry.

We continue to the airport. Dozens of people are waiting to be called to take humanitarian flights to San Andrés. Entire families with suitcases that have to wait for long hours in the open. The most experienced prefer the sea route.

Vladimir explains to me that the minority is the one who wants to leave, especially women, children, the elderly and the sick. Providencers are very attached to their land and fear to leave and lose it. In addition, looting and robbery have occurred, he adds.

***
The corpulent Carlos Archbold Corpus, the man at the beginning of this chronicle, appears on the road for the first time, beckoning us to stop. And he talks until the lump in his throat stops him.

Then he becomes emboldened again: he wants to express his annoyance. “One of the flaws was that they didn’t prepare us for a hurricane of this category. They did tell us a breeze was coming, a hurricane, but we thought it was type 2 and never to this point. Another thing: in Providencia we do not have shelters and the authorities must realize that the churches are not the place to put up with something like this. All the churches are down and in one of them a wall fell on my wife’s cousin (Rogino Livingston) and killed him. He hit him on the head and he died ”.

In the same clean and jerk, the man recalls some of the urgencies of the providencens: “We are incommunicado. We need water because we collected it in tanks and cisterns that were damaged. We also do not have medicines, it is a problem to get them for example for diabetics. We have all the wet mats, we need a place to sleep. We are sleeping on the cement. We need them to organize us well in one place ”.

(We tell you: Hot oceans, the ‘fuel’ for hurricanes)

Suddenly, he drops a phrase that changes my perspective of the tragedy: “Thank you for coming to show what is happening. We are bad, but we are going to recover ”.

And then I understand that in my journey through the destruction I also saw hundreds of providencianos working together in full sun, removing debris, cleaning, drying, beginning to rebuild. Trying to recover as quickly as possible. With as much sadness as bravery in the eyes.

And I think that Colombians always knew where Providencia was, but perhaps we did little for it. And now that this paradise seems lost by a hurricane, time to find it.

TIME