Eighty-year-old María Estela Villalta says she lives in fear. "I don't want to see the sea, I don't want to see the river," she says as her eyes fill with tears.
The night of November 7, a turbulent stream from the Huiza River shook her from her sleep and took away the few possessions she had. "I could barely walk, my legs were shivering because the water was up to here," she recalls as she points to her waist, and starts shaking again.
"I lifted one of my granddaughters with one arm, and then I heard the other one crying. I couldn't find her. It was dark, I could not see her. Suddenly, I saw that the water was dragging her downstream. I grabbed her by her hair with my other hand; I wanted to save her from the river," she continues while glancing at her four-year-old granddaughter who is playing with her sister.
On that same day, a low pressure system caused unprecedented rains that triggered floods and landslides. In less than three hours ocean waters overflowed the Huiza River, which destroyed bridges, roads and homes, and killed hundreds in its path.
"I can't see anything; I lost my glasses and my dentures too. But look at her, she is not missing anything," she says pointing to her granddaughter.
María Estela and her family have been sheltered in a temporary collective centre located in the small town of Melara.
Almost one month after the disaster, 49 collective centres are still open, providing shelter to 3,198 persons who lost all their belongings and are waiting to be relocated.
IOM staff conduct daily monitoring visits to the collective centres, as part of its emergency role of monitoring and managing the centres.
"The first day I visited the affected areas I found flooded homes, the smell was unbearable in all of the towns. A very kind man showed me around the houses, or what was left of them, and when we arrived at the river, he showed me a bunch of bricks – all that remained of his home," says Victor García, a team member of IOM's monitoring task force.
García says that the community was organized and prepared, this is why the man who showed him around took refuge on higher ground and was not swept away by the river. "From where he was, he saw the river swallow his house and all of his belongings. That must have been very painful, it certainly impressed me," adds Garcia.
"When you visit these communities you realize nothing is the same. It does not resemble what we see on television, the devastation is by far more severe. The people are anxiously waiting to speak to us, to find relief," says Yanira Hernández, who is part of IOM's task force and who has visited several shelters in the department of La Libertad.
"In the immediate aftermath, the affected population was desperate. Aid wasn't arriving fast enough; they did not want surveys, they wanted help. Three or four days after the IOM monitoring began, their attitude started to change," explains Roxana Alvarenga, technical supervisor of IOM's collective centres.
"I remember one shelter that I visited where several children were sick with diarrhea. I reported this to the local authorities, and on my next visit I saw that the health authorities had dealt with the problem. That made us feel that our reports were indeed valuable, and that our job was vital for the people," recalls García.
But monitoring visits to the shelters were only the beginning of an information chain required to meet the needs of the population at the collective centres.
"There were instances where two different government agencies had visited the same centre, had filed their reports but the information did not match. Getting to the bottom of these matters and fixing the data took a long time, sometimes, many days we finished work at 3:00 a.m.," points out Rodolfo Landaverde, IOM's officer at a collective centre.
Landaverde says the IOM presence has helped turn this problem around. "Our presence in the field has allowed us to work closely with the government agencies. This made everyone's job easier and more accurate," he explains.
"These are difficult times, but the monitors have helped us a great deal," says 84-year-old Juana Rogelia Gálvez, who must start her life again.
"We have food and we are safe here," adds Juana Rogelia, as she lights a fire inside four large stones that serve as an improvised stove to cook some beans for herself, her son and her granddaughter.
For more information, please contact:
IOM El Salvador, Press Office
E-mail: pressiomsansalvador@iom.int