This was the second tragedy for
José:
"The first time was in the mountain of
Carmen de Uria, in 1951. I was a small child but I remember it
all...my father took us out through the mountains, I remember as if
it were today."
Adriana lived through the experience in
December 1999 and she describes it as:
" The river was always growing, but I
never imagined that it would grow to this size...the river came with
such a force and started to take everything...I would not leave my
house, even when all my family were wanting to leave...but not me, I
wanted to stay until the end..."
The biggest effect on Adriana
was:
"...to have a house one day and by dawn to
be on the street...three days without food and no more drinking
water either."
José tells:
"That night was terrible...I was with my
grandchildren...and we didn't know what had happened; we were in
different parts and as the river came with such noise, we couldn't
hear each other..." "When it was light, it was something terrifying,
one person screaming to another, but not being able to hear
anything...there was too much noise...and those nerves and that
darkness...and the children..."
Wendy, his 15 year old daughter, remembers
the children...
"they were screaming and crying...and
their fear and their sadness". But she considers that "being
united, with all the family" was what helped them
survive.
For Adriana, that was the most important
thing for their survival, nevertheless she thinks about the
tragedy:
"...it can be a punishment of God that one
learns by, to be more humane."
For Wendy, something has
changed:
"before, I was not studying very much, but
now, if I want to study, I put my mind to it, and if I want, I
can..."
Now, José is inspired by an image that he
remembers in the middle of the tragedy:
"We are all united...all one family. It
was like in the film of Christ, when he was coming and all everybody
behind him...Christ walked with a string of people behind
him."
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