Mocoa Landslide
In relation with the Mocoa landslide, I personally did not heard much of, or experienced a tragedy like that. The most I have heard was just stories from random people, but not much context was given to me. From reading different survivor stories and watching videos, I was able to imagine myself being in a survivor situation, potentially leaving my loved ones trapped, or watching my neighbors get taken away by the current. I learned just how completely traumatizing it can be for people, and how truly no one can understand 100% unless they have been through it themselves. I was able to see that in such extreme circumstances like this, people will almost always try to be hopeful and will resort to prayer or spirituality for guidance and strength. I see now how important it is for crisis intervention specialists to first focus on basic needs being met before mental health interventions can begin.
Being able to have even a small glimpse of how it could have been for survivors, I will make sure to be conscious of their pain and do the best I can to gather as much information possible to better help my future clients. If in a crisis situation, I must check for client’s sense of safety and figure out if they have all their basic needs met. Without those basic needs met, therapy or mental health interventions would just be a complete waste of time, and could have disastrous consequences. I also am able to understand further how important single session therapy can be for crisis interventions, to make sure that people are getting those basic needs. I believe utilizing the SR-5 can go a long way in helping clients who have gone through a disaster.
No one told us anything. If there was any sort of authority that warned us about this tragedy, I did not experience that at all. A friend of mine called me 11:30 pm at night from a more dangerous part of Putumayo, and even though I did not recognize it at the time, it was a sign from God. My friend said that we are drowning, to do something, call someone. I did not know the magnitude of the situation, but I tried calling every phone number I knew, but they were all turned off. I decided to write a message on facebook. Despite that, someone came to my door, and I found out it was my brother in law telling me that we had to evacuate. I looked outside and saw every single one of my neighbors were outside running, and so I decided to pack my things quickly. When I came back, the water had already entered my house and the water was taking away my car. A lot of my neighbors told me to go back inside and break the roof so that they could get at a higher level. I took a videorecording and sent it to my husband and asked for help. I saw many of my neighbors do the same as I did in my house, ripping the roof to stay at a higher level. I was so full of anguish and I was so scared, but I knew that I was not going to die here because I have a lot of faith, an infinite faith. I am a spiritual person, and I decided to tell everyone that we are not going to die here, we are going to survive. We started praying together, and the house began swaying. Those seconds together I will never forget. Anytime I walk and the floor moves, I am instantly reminded. The house broke down on us but luckily there was a small hole for me to breathe from, and I asked God “I need oxygen.” I had the walls all around me. I heard a little girl below me, and I could hear her breathe. I will have to live with this. I tried telling the girl that we will survive, to keep breathing. After a while, I heard voices outside and I took my arm out and started shouting at people outside that I am here and there is a little girl here below me. People started picking up the rocks above me. But the girl did not make it, she just had an arm out. We tried pulling her arm, but she was already gone. I kept trying to dig more and more but the people around me kept telling me that no she was not alive anymore. When I looked around…there was nothing around me. Just humongous rocks all around me. I yelled for names, but no one heard. As I started walking with others, I was only able to find a little boy with his mother and daughter. We fought against the current, and no one will ever truly understand what it felt like to keep pushing forward knowing that you are leaving behind your loved ones back home. The little girl told me that her dad was left behind trapped underground, and the last words that he told her was “I love you so much.”
