The landslide, mud and stones that buried 15 houses in the Retamas annex, Parcoy district, Pata province, in the Libertad region, has so far left a injured, 15 persons reported missing and 8 rescued.
The Minister of Defense,a href="https://www.infobae.com/tag/jose-gavidia/" rel="noopener noreferrer" José Gavidia, took stock of the rescue actions and reported that eight people were rescued unharmed. In addition, he stressed that rescue efforts are intensified in the area.
“We are intensifying the rescue efforts and eight people have already been rescued unharmed and we have an injured person who is treated at the medical center and will probably be evacuated tomorrow,” he told the press from the La Libertad region on Tuesday.
RESCUE TEAM WORKING
The Minister of Defense emphasized that a rescue team composed of 4a href="https://www.infobae.com/america/peru/2022/03/15/derrame-en-pataz-mindef-confirma-envio-de-40-rescatistas-y-miembros-del-ejercito-para-rescatar-personas/" rel="noopener noreferrer" 0 people is being worked, including firefighters, mine personnel and rescue police, who have already are in the disaster area.
“We are working in two groups and we are going to be there all night, we have been preparing the struts to continue moving forward and progressing in the cleaning of debris,” emphasized José Gavidia.
15 BURIED DWELLINGS
The minister added that 15 houses have been buried, so it was decided to evict the population from the other neighboring houses that are in danger, as there are likely to be new landslides.
“We are working hard to find missing persons, the biggest problem is evicting other people (this area) is a ravine and it's a time bomb. We still can't confirm if (among the missing) there are minors,” he said.
RECOMMENDATIONS FROM INGEMMET
For its part, the Geological, Mining and Metallurgical Institute (Ingemmet) recommended that around 50 meters from the place where the tragedy occurred, populations should evacuate because another similar event is likely to occur, a representative of the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) reported.
They stated that there is a lot of mining activity in the area, but now the populations have settled in a precarious and undue manner, despite warnings of danger from the competent authorities.
They indicated that an average of 3,000 inhabitants live in the town of Retamas and that similar disasters have already occurred: “In February 2022 a house collapsed and in October 2021 too. In addition, in 2009 the Ingemmet issued a report warning of the risks, because a similar event had already happened in a town very close to where today's tragedy took place.”
PEDRO CASTILLO TRAVELS TO
Meanwhile, the President of the Republic, Pedro Castillo, ubannounced that he is going to the province of Pataz, in order to verify the area affected by a landslide that happened in this part of the country.
“After having fulfilled the message to the Peruvian people from Congress, I am going to the province of Pataz to verify in situ the area affected by the accident that occurred this morning. #GobiernoDelPueblo will be present at a time when citizens most require it,” said the president on his Twitter account
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