My Report

Hi, my name is Kimberly and I am reporting about an earthquake which happened in Colombia in 1999. The 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck Armenia, Columbia on the 25th of January 1999 at 6:19 GMT, making it the strongest earthquake to hit Colombia in 16 years.Armenia is part of a coffee growing region in Columbia, so there were fears for the coffee industry.The result of the earthquake is that many buildings like historical churches collapsed, of which some toppled due to poor designs built with no technical requirements, others because of the land they were built on or both. As some hospitals collapsed as well, some injured people were sent out of the city to receive treatment for their injuries.

The confirmed death toll, although feared to be 1000-2000, is 938. There were 4117 injuries and 400,000 homeless.It was feared that more casualties were to result from hunger and diseases. The first aftershock was hours later, and it had a magnitude of 5.4. As people wanted to get food, there was looting and 4000 troops tried to control this situation. The focus for the region was 10-20 miles underground, which was shallow. The area was located near edges of the Nazca Plate, the South American plate and the Caribbean Plate. The Nazca Plate was subducted under the South American Plate, which is the cause of the tragic earthquake.

A curfew was declared by Columbia's president,Andreas Pastrana where people waited for food, water and shelter desperately.However, after three days, no emergency aid reached the disaster areas.Due to poor planning, 95 tons of food was left at the airport in Armenia.Health has become a problem as there is no water or toilets and doctors have been called in to help.Blood donors were appealed for and also refrigerated trucks to store dead bodies.

I think that every time anyone thinks of building anything, they should always think about the design and whether the building would hold. We should also be aware of what our family members are doing or where they are in case emergency strikes and also to prevent losses of loved ones.But most importantly, everyone should know how to react most effectively and quickly when disaster strikes so as to prevent chaos.

Bibliography:
Websites:

http://theearthquakemuseum.blogspot.com/1999/01/12599-columbia-earthquake.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/264514.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Armenia,_Colombia_earthquake