Townspeople say they saw cracks in the hillsides before the second slide. One survivor, Maria Dolores Villa, tried to warn relief workers that the area was dangerous. “I shouted [for them] to stay away, but they had come to rescue a young girl and just kept at it,” Villa told El Espectador, a Bogota daily. “I saw the mountain break into two and bury them.” By the weekend, eight people were still missing and feared dead. Survivors in Argelia were left wondering if they could ever again live peacefully under their merciless mountain.
