A flash flood and mudslide caused by heavy rains, Colombia killed at least 58 people on Monday in the alpine town of Salgar, in Antioquia Province, western Colombia.
The town of 18,000 lies amid one of Colombia’s major coffee-growing regions. Former President Alvaro Uribe, who spent part of his childhood in Salgar, where his mother was born, rushed to the town to assist in relief efforts.
President Juan Manuel Santos travelled to the town to oversee relief efforts and said several children lost their parents and the bodies of those killed needed to be transported to Medellin, about 60 miles away, to be identified.
The tragedy in Salgar appeared to be the single deadliest event since a 1999 earthquake in the city of Armenia that left hundreds dead. A wave of flooding during the 2011 rainy season left more than 100 dead.
More than 150 disasters have struck the country over the past 40 years, claiming more than 32,000 lives and affecting more than 12 million people, according to the Inter-American Development Bank
