Vargas Tragedy - Legacy

Legacy

The disaster caused estimated damages of USD $1.79 to $3.5 billion. More than 8,000 homes were destroyed, displacing up to 75,000 people. The mudslides significantly altered more than 60 kilometres (37 mi) of the coastline in Vargas. Over 70% of the population of the state of Vargas was affected by the disaster. Public services, like water, electricity, phone lines, and land transportation (roads and bridges) completely disappeared in some places. There were no supplies of food and water for months, so most of the population had to be evacuated. Looting and sacking sprouted up everywhere, forcing the military to implement martial law for more than one year.

The death toll was considered to be between 10,000 and 30,000—the exact number of casualties is difficult to determine as there was no reliable census data, especially about shanty towns and small communities that were completely wiped out; moreover, only some 1,000 bodies were recovered, with the rest swept to sea by the mud or buried in the landslides.

By 2006, the state was back to its pre-disaster population level, and projects were slowly being carried out to rebuild damaged infrastructure. Nine years after the event, thousands remained homeless. The value of real estate in zones untouched by the floods declined by as much as 70%, due to the destruction of infrastructure.