The passage of Hurricane Julia by the Colombian islands of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina on Saturday night left “slight damage,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Sunday during a tour of the island to assess the damage.
In San Andrés and Providencia, two injuries were reported, two houses destroyed and 101 with damage caused by floods, the fall of roofs, poles and large trees, plus other material damage, according to the balance of the authorities of the islands.
The Colombian president said that a reconstruction plan will be launched.
“We are going to contract directly with the community to repair roofs. I would like a search for the island’s own mechanisms to have the most resistant roofs possible. Not all roofs, as you can see, are created equal. There are some that have undoubtedly not withstood a level 1 hurricane at all and there are others that have. So this architecture typical of the island must be increased, because it is the most resistant”, Petro pointed out.
The islanders told the voice of america that the passage of the hurricane through the island “it could have been worse”, but that, fortunately, “the damage suffered was not serious”.
“Fortunately we are alive. During the night it was that the strongest winds appeared, the coconuts were heard falling like balls. Compared to other islanders, it went well for me, because there were other people more affected who had their roofs blown off, their windows fell, trees fell that destroyed their houses, so I think mine was not so serious,” he told the VOA Luis Osorio, inhabitant of San Andrés.
Shanon Bernand, one of the people who suffered the passage of the hurricane, recounted how he faced the arrival of the strong winds at dawn on Saturday.
“It was horrible, we sheltered in a house, I felt this hurricane stronger than Iota, the winds were strong and the roofs began to blow off. The neighbors prayed, they had never experienced anything like this,” said Bernand, a resident of the San Luis area, in the south of the island, where some houses were left without roofs or trees fell on them.
Category 5 Hurricane Iota hit the islands in 2020causing disastrous damage to infrastructure.
The Ombudsman of Colombia, Carlos Camargo, asked the authorities on Monday to guarantee emergency care and humanitarian aid to the communities affected by the passage of Hurricane Julia.
“From the Ombudsman’s Office we will be attentive through each of our regions, with teams in the territory, to accompany the activities of the risk management units, so that the rights of the people affected by the passage of the hurricane are promptly restored. “, reported the Ombudsman.
Finally, measures such as the curfew have already been lifted, the beaches have been reopened. In addition, the Colombian Civil Aeronautics announced that after verifying the effects, flights were restored from the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla airport, in San Andrés, and El Embrujo in Providencia.
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