Armero is a municipality in the Tolima Department, Colombia. According to the National Department of Statistics of Colombia, 12,852 lived in the town in 2005. Its median temperature is 27 °C. It was founded in 1895, but was not officially recognized as the seat of the region until 29 September 1908, by President

Rafael Reyes Rafael Reyes Prieto (December 5, 1849 – February 18, 1921) was a Colombian politician and soldier who was the Chief of Staff of the Colombian National Army and President of Colombia (1904–1909).Gobernantes Colombianos, Ignacio Arismendi Pos ...

. The town was originally named San Lorenzo. In 1930, the name was changed to Armero in memory of

José León Armero José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, a national martyr. Because the region became the main cotton producer in the country, the city was called Colombia's White City. It was a prosperous agricultural area until 1985. The original seat of the region was destroyed on 13 November 1985, after an eruption of the

Nevado del Ruiz The Nevado del Ruiz (), also known as La Mesa de Herveo ( en, Mesa of Herveo, the name of the nearby town) is a volcano on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a stra ...

Volcano produced

lahars A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. Lahars are extremel ...

that buried the town and killed about 23,000 people. Approximately 31,000 people lived in the area at the time. The incident became known as the

Armero tragedy The Armero tragedy ( es, Tragedia de Armero, links=no ) occurred following the eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano in Tolima, Colombia, on November 13, 1985. The volcano's eruption after 69 years of dormancy caught nearby towns unawar ...

. While the destruction of the town made world news in its own right, the best known victim was

Omayra Sánchez Omayra Sánchez Garzón (August 28, 1972 – November 16, 1985) was a Colombian girl trapped and killed by a landslide when she was 13 years old. The landslide was caused by the 1985 eruption of the volcano Nevado del Ruiz in Armero, ...

, a young girl who died after being trapped by water and concrete up to her neck for three days. After this event, the town of Guayabal was assigned as the seat of the municipality of Armero, rendering Armero a

ghost town Ghost Town(s) or Ghosttown may refer to: * Ghost town, a town that has been abandoned Film and television * ''Ghost Town'' (1936 film), an American Western film by Harry L. Fraser * ''Ghost Town'' (1956 film), an American Western film by Alle ...

. The survivors were relocated to the towns of Guayabal and

Lérida Lleida (, ; Spanish: Lérida ) is a city in the west of Catalonia, Spain. It is the capital city of the province of Lleida. Geographically, it is located in the Catalan Central Depression. It is also the capital city of the Segrià comarca, as ...

where they received housing and money, although little was done in aiding the survivors in reconstructing their lives. In the area where the city was located, survivors created an extensive cemetery. Where each one had a house, they constructed a tomb with an epitaph. In this way, they constructed a new symbolic city called ''Camposanto''. Armando Armero is a foundation set up to bring social and economic development to a zone that has been devastated in the aftermath of the last eruption of Ruiz. It has created the Centro de Interpretación de la Memoria y la Tragedia de Armero, the first Memory Interpretation Center of a Natural Catastrophe in the world located exactly where the events occurred. There are memorial sites at each of the important places of the city (such as hospitals, parks, and theaters) near the ruins. In those, visitors can learn about the city as they existed before the tragedy.

References

External links

*
MSN Encarta: Armero Guayabal
31 October 2009) *
Armando Armero organization
* Bogotá, Ediciones Bartleby, {{Municipalities tolima department Municipalities of Tolima Department Populated places established in 1895 Natural disaster ghost towns 1895 establishments in Colombia