Just a brief note, but today (November 13) is the 23rd anniversary of the disastrous lahar at Nevado del Ruiz in Colombia. Over 23,000 people died when a lahar, started by a relatively minor eruption of the volcano, swept down the river valleys the side of the edifice and destroyed Armero and Chinchina. The footage of rescue efforts after the lahar were devastating and heartbreaking (caution: linked video might not be for the faint of heart). Sadly, this disaster was mostly preventable as the citizens of these towns could have had at least an hour's warning to walk to higher ground, but the Colombian government did not have an effective plan in place.
My mother's home town is Pereira, to the southwest of Ruiz, and I clearly remember driving through the area hit by the lahar a few years after it occurred. It was one of those formative memories, seeing ...
