They were only small children, or had not yet been born, when the tragedy took place in Las Colinas de Santa Tecla. They barely understood the magnitude of what was happening. Today they feel comfortable in the place that was the icon of a national tragedy.
An earthquake hit El Salvador at 11:33 am on January 13, 2001. Its magnitude was 7.6. One of the most affected places was Las Colinas neighborhood, in Santa Tecla. A landslide that broke away from the El Bálsamo Mountains buried 200 houses and killed 500 people, almost half of the total number of deaths in the entire country.
Today is the twentieth anniversary of the tragedy, the inhabitants live normally from day to day. Milena Bahamón has lived with her family for 13 years, two passages after the landslide in Las Colinas, where the landslide did not cover the houses, and today she remembers when her mother bought the house in 2008.
“We thought Santa Tecla was a good option to live in because of its location and that it was economically accessible for us as a family and it was close to San Salvador.”
Also: unpublished photos of the Las Colinas tragedy, taken minutes after the 2001 earthquake
Think how many family and friends questioned the purchase because of what happened six years ago. “It used to be more common for us to say where we lived and people were surprised or scared because they thought it was an uninhabitable place.”
Image after the 2001 Las Colinas earthquake.
“When we decided to decide Las Colinas, people associate the destruction caused by the mountain range, but in reality today it is a quiet place, yes, when it shakes we are the first to talk to friends and family to find out how it is with us, but actually as a passage we have a lot of contact and I think the last thing that is talked about is the damage from the earthquake ”.
Maybe because we didn’t live here I’m not that scared because I don’t have that relationship, not like other neighbors who just remember crying. I know the story because I have read and heard stories from the neighbors, but I have no connection with the tragedy.
Milena assures her that she sees her home after 13 years and does not see the need to move, in fact, she assures that the area is populated with more businesses and very busy.
Also: survivors of the Las Colinas tragedy commemorate their loved ones after 19 years of earthquake
Jazmín Flores was ten years old and she remembers how she begged her parents that morning to take her and her brother to the bank and so they all went to do the paperwork as a family. No one is left in the house. Jasmine lives right next to the site of the landslide. His house suffered damage to the garage and a room on the second floor.
When I got back from the couch and encountered the tragedy, what happened didn’t matter much. “I remember seeing how the bodies of the neighbors from the houses across the street were arranged. That stayed in my mind and the truth, although I didn’t understand it, I was afraid. When I grew up I understood everything ”.
Jazmín and her family did not live in the house for two years until they decided to return because of the looting of the abandoned houses. It became his home again. They couldn’t just leave him.
“It’s a good place to live and if there was a house for sale here, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy it. It is a very accessible, safe place and the board of directors has managed the mitigation work so that a disaster does not happen again ”.
Jazmín assures that she cannot continue to stigmatize her community after 20 years. “Little by little, the price of houses has increased. Before they were very cheap. There is more trade, the banks have streamlined procedures for home loans ”.
She is sure that the salvage works are a guarantee of safety, so that the mountain does not collapse again. “We are in danger all over this country and I believe that life must go on, just as vegetation has been reborn, so is our life.”
In 2006 Guillermo Ayala was given the opportunity to buy a house in Santa Tecla, a house that was completely vacant. The previous owners had left it because it was a few yards where the avalanche passed and the bank finished it.
His daughter Alexandra knew about the tragedy because an aunt lived near Las Colinas. “Thank goodness nothing happened to them. They told my father that they sold this house and so we came from Sensuntepeque to live here ”.
Several houses were abandoned after the earthquake, but they found new owners who bought them. “There is always fear. When it shakes or rains, we keep thinking it will happen again, ”added Nelson Ayala, Alexandra’s brother.
Guillermo had to pay in one go because no one lent him money. The perception of uncertainty has passed over the years. “We can never be sure with nature, but I do believe that mitigation works.”
For Alejandro Flores, who has chaired the Las Colinas neighborhood association for more than 20 years, he assures that there is no technical report saying residents are at risk of living in the area. “There is a safe place here, the risk will of course never be zero, because like everywhere else it is impossible. Today it seems like a stable place, but in reality there is no study to confirm this and there is no political will to do so ”.
“While it is true, the OPAMSS presented a study based on what happened then, no one has ever come since then. There is only the mitigation work that has been done and we will continue to demand that it be done so it doesn’t happen again on January 13, 2001, ”he adds.