Updated November 14, 2025 at 1:03 PM PST
ARMERO, Colombia — Touring the ruins of this once-bustling farm town, veterinarian Fernando Angarita points to the overgrown lots where the bakery, the hospital and the Presbyterian church once stood. Amid the rubble sits a boulder the size of a cargo truck that arrived with the avalanche that buried Armero on Nov. 13, 1985.
The deluge was caused by the eruption of snowcapped Nevado del Ruiz volcano 30 miles west of town. Warnings to evacuate arrived too late. The flood of lava, mud and debris killed 25,000 people.
Angarita was climbing a tree to escape when he was caught by the massive mudslide. It carried him nearly 4 miles out of town before he could crawl to safety. He suffered 16 fractures to his face and jaw and compared the experience to being inside a blender.
Angarita, who is now 71, says: "I have no idea why I'm still alive."
This week, Colombians are marking the 40th anniversary of the Armero tragedy with solemn ceremonies and renewed efforts to clarify what's become of town residents who went missing.
"Armero is a part of Colombian history. It was the worst natural disaster in Latin America with a huge number of victims," said Maurcio Cuéllar, a survivor of the tragedy and mayor of the nearby town of Guayabal, where many Armero residents resettled.
Although Nevado del Ruiz is a highly active volcano, there were few warnings ahead of the 1985 eruption. The lava melted part of the snowcap and created a massive mudslide that flowed down a river valley where Armero was located.
Many residents were glued to their TV sets for a big soccer match and had no idea something was wrong until the lights went out at about 9:30 p.m. and they heard a roar.
"The sound was like a whole bunch of helicopters in the sky," said Marco Rivera, who was 18 at the time and found refuge behind the sturdy gate of the town's cemetery. "Lights were flashing in the dark because the mudslide swallowed up cars with their lights on and they were flipping over and over."
Armero, once home to 29,000 residents, was never rebuilt. These days tour guides lead people through a wasteland of half-buried buildings and makeshift gravestones. Asthar Vreeswijk, a Dutch tourist, found Armero more moving than the petrified ruins of Pompeii.
"If you're going to visit a place like this in Europe, it's totally structured and like renovated. You don't feel that it happened for real," she said. "But here, everything it's like how it was. So, it's quite powerful."
The biggest attraction is a shrine to Omayra Sánchez. Only 13, she was found by rescue workers in water up to her neck and trapped by the debris of her family's ruined house. As they tried to save her, she spoke to TV journalists.
"Mommy, if you can hear me, pray so that I can walk again and that these people can help me," she said.
After spending 70 hours in the water, Sánchez died of hypothermia. Many Colombians now view her as a kind of saint and at her gravesite they've placed hundreds of stone plaques thanking her for the blessings they believe she's bestowed upon them.
If Nevado del Ruiz erupts again Colombia should be better prepared. Amid criticism of the belated and uncoordinated rescue efforts 40 years ago, the government created a special agency to respond to disasters while early warning systems have been installed in several towns near the volcano.
Meanwhile, the search for possible missing people continues. Survivors reported a total of 583 missing children, says Francisco González, an Armero native who is leading an investigation into what happened to them.
He acknowledges that many of these children likely perished in the landslide. Others were quickly adopted. However, chaos reigned after the landslide, record-keeping was shoddy, and the fate of these children may never be known.
Even so, the Colombian government's child welfare agency, which handles adoptions, has pledged to open its records and archives to try to clarify what happened. Adriana Tierradentro, one of the agency's directors, told NPR: "We will provide all the information that we can."
In a symbolic search for truth, relatives of the missing launched hundreds of model boats into a river near Armero. Their tiny sails were emblazoned with photos of the missing. Among them is the younger brother of Mariela Díaz. Every year, she makes a pilgrimage back to her hometown of Armero to look for him.
"My brother did survive. Lots of people saw him. A doctor saw a photo of him and told me that he treated him," Díaz says. "So, we still have hope that, maybe, he will reappear."
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