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Hundreds of inhabitants of the Colombian island of Providencia who lost everything due to the passage of Hurricane Iota emigrate daily to that of San Andrés while those who cannot do so seek refuge in the main church, one of the few buildings left standing by the force of nature.
The providencianos, whose life changed radically at dawn last Monday when the hurricane hit the island, the second largest in the archipelago that makes up San Andrés and Santa Catalina, are evacuated on humanitarian flights by the Colombian Air Force (FAC) that depart daily from El Embrujo airport and land at the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla international terminal.
The solution found by the locals after the Iota onslaught that left them homeless is to request shelter in the homes of friends and family who live in San Andrés, where the cyclone caused less damage.
“My daughter is 16 years old and has a scoliosis problem, she had had a spinal operation for two years and it has to be under control. I had to send her to San Andrés because she can’t help herself at all and we don’t have a doctor, we don’t have a hospital. My daughter cannot be here, “Angela Contreras told EFE.
Contreras’s home collapsed when the category five hurricane passed over Colombia’s only insular department.
Contreras, her husband – who was following the hurricane’s progress from his cell phone – and her daughter managed to take refuge in the bathroom of the house, the place that was least affected because it had a concrete roof.
“I sent my daughter to San Andrés with a relative to take care of her while we try to rebuild the house. People who have minor children have to try to evacuate them to the other sister island so that the children can have everything they need. it is medicine or food, and to have mental help because the truth is that psychologically they were ill, “warns Contreras.
LIFE IN A SUITCASE
The islanders who began their exodus to San Andrés and other regions of the country packed their lives in suitcases that carry the few items that they could rescue from the rubble to which the Providencia buildings were reduced.
Jenny García arrived at El Embrujo airport to say goodbye to her daughter while she stays in Providencia to try to rebuild “even a room” where she can spend the night without getting wet when it rains.
“I am sending my daughter to the other sisters who are in San Andrés because I have to stay to fix anything in the house because if one leaves there is no one to take care of yours. My house was left on the floor, I lost everything, absolutely everything, there was nothing left, “he tells Efe.
The islanders line up outside the small airport where they await the arrival of the planes that leave San Andrés loaded with humanitarian aid and return full of victims or sick people.
SLEEP IN TENTS
The options for those who stay on the island are not many: spend the night under tents distributed by the Government, stay with a neighbor whose house has been less destroyed or stay out in the open.
Sleeping under a tent is a luxury that not many can afford today. Some of them were installed in the Nuestra Señora de los Dolores church, in the center of the island, which, although it was roofless, withstood the force of the hurricane.
More than 100 people were housed in a communal hall of the parish but had to be located in other places to avoid outbreaks of coronavirus infections and that is how the parish became a refuge.
“The church has become a shelter and we have families installed there. They brought us some tents and we managed to locate about ten here in the church to distance people,” explains the priest Benito Hufffington to Efe, who with the help of The islanders had rebuilt the temple 25 years ago.
The priest believes that the total reconstruction of the church, in which some 500 people could sit, may take several years because, according to what he says, he understands that the government’s priority is to help fix the houses and restore interrupted energy and communications services from the Iota pass.
“I have been working for 31 years with this community, with the islanders, and this disaster came to us and put the whole world in prostration because the destruction is total, it is not partial. 99% of the houses are on the floor and without a roof So (there is) no one to help anyone, “Hufffington says.
Those who found refuge in the church return to their homes during the day to finish cleaning up the mess left by Iota and at night they even arrive with babies in their arms to sleep in the place that used to be a place of prayer.
The priest understands the needs of the community because he himself saw how the hurricane took the roof and collapsed part of his own house, a tragedy from which he says “no one was saved.”
“I was with three nuns and when the whole roof was taken away we had to take refuge in a bathroom from eleven at night until one in the afternoon the next day. The hurricane passed and now we have to be living in the bathrooms because there is nowhere We go to bed, the water comes and gets us wet. The only safe part is the bathroom and we sleep there every night, “he emphasizes.
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