Скачать или смотреть COLOMBIA: ARMENIA - ONE MONTH SINCE EARTHQUAKE

(27 Feb 1999) Spanish/Nat

It is one month since an earthquake ripped through Colombia' central coffee-growing belt killing nearly 12-hundred people and leaving more than a quarter of a (m) million homeless.

65 percent of buildings in the provincial capital Armenia were destroyed - houses, office buildings, schools, and hospitals.

Much of its now homeless population is also out of work and must now get by on whatever aid is available to them.

An explosion rips through and razes what is left of this building to the ground.

More than two thirds of this once busy city of Armenia was destroyed or structurally damaged as a result of the earthquake which struck here one month ago.

And the ruins left behind must come down to avoid further injury to a population still in a state of shock.

Some 12-hundred people died and some 250-thousand were left homeless in the quake which registered 6.7 on the Richter Scale.

The disaster ruined a town once dubbed the Miracle City, that lies nestled in the heart of Colombia's central coffee-growing belt, among some of its richest plantations.

Now, Armenia's entire administrative and commercial area has been evacuated, three quarters of its schools have been abandoned, and unemployment has become endemic.

Those housed in emergency accommodation remain there, dependent on food handouts in order to survive.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"The communal kitchens are basically there to serve food to those who are living in the shelters, who were left with no homes. To feed them, even though the food may be very little."
SUPER CAPTION: Jorge Mosquera, communal kitchen coordinator

At first glance, an air of normality hangs over camps set up for the homeless, such as this one at Ciudad Quindio.

Children play between the rows of tents as they would have once played outside their homes.

But many here remain traumatised by the quake and can do very little except reflect on what has been lost.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"I walk. From here to where my house used to be. Walking around. Listening to music."
SUPER CAPTION: Alberto Martinez, earthquake survivor

Damage to the region is estimated at around two (b) billion U-S dollars.

But officials, including Armenia's own mayor, are already optimistic that a new city will rise from the dust and rubble left behind by the old.

SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"To rebuild a city like Armenia, home to 300-thousand people, where 80 per cent of the tragedy took place, is not something that can be done overnight. I think I can say that, although it may seem paradoxical, we have with shared spirit worked through this tragedy, handled it well and we are going to plan a new, very beautiful city."
SUPER CAPTION: Alvaro Patino, mayor of Armenia

For the time being, water remains rationed and thousands must share the use of facilities such as these communal bathrooms.

And while many of the displaced continue to live in shelters, the slow exodus of devastated families has begun.

Already an estimated 50-thousand have left the region in search of a new life somewhere else.

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