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Huascaran Avalanche - 1962 Ranrahirca, Peru Result - 2,700 - 4,000 people died - 10,000 farm animals were killed and million dollars in crops were distroyed - bodies were carried 100 miles (160 km) away to the pacific ocean near Chimbote Facts - normally there would be 20-30

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1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide
At least 2,000 people are believed to have been killed after a massive avalanche of rocks and ice buried an entire mountain village and several settlements in north-west Peru.
Last night millions of tons of snow, rocks, mud and debris tumbled down the extinct volcano of Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain in the Andes range.

The village of Ranrahirca and its inhabitants was totally destroyed along with eight other towns. The mayor Alfonso Caballero said only about 50 of its 500 inhabitants survived. "In eight minutes Ranrahirca was wiped off the map," he said.

Relief efforts are being hampered by the very storms that started the devastating landslide, but there are believed to be few survivors.

Wall of rock and ice

Colonel Umberto Ampuera, head of emergency services, said the disaster was "like a scene from Dante's Inferno".

He appealed to the Peruvian Government for aid to restore stricken communications and reach anyone who escaped the landslide.

Two Peruvian Air Force planes have carried relief supplies to the area and troops have been sent there to open up roads to Ranrahica and other areas cut off by the avalanche.

A massive wall of ice and rocks, about 12 metres (40ft) high and 1km (1,000 yards) high, roared down the River Santa. The river rose by eight metres (26ft) carrying with it everything in its path down the Rio Santa valley.

Bodies have been found at the port of Chimbote, 60 miles from the scene of the tragedy, where the river meets the sea.

Help from United Nations

The President of the Peruvian Red Cross, Roberto Thorndike, estimated between 2,000 and 2,500 people were killed.

But local authorities believe the death toll is higher - between 3,000 and 4,000 people.

The region is prone to major avalanches at this time of year when glaciers melt and break off sliding through the "quebracas" (deep canyons) in the valley below.

U Thant, the acting United Nations Secretary General, has offered Peru aid to alleviate the situation.

In a telegram to President Manuel Prado he said representatives of the UN technical assistance board and the UN children's fund would be ready to give any help required of them.

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BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide

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1962: Thousands killed in Peru landslide At least 2,000 people are believed to have been killed after a massive avalanche of rocks and ice buried an entire mountain village and several settlements in north-west Peru. Last night millions of tons of snow, rocks, mud and debris tumbled down the extinct volcano of Huascaran, Peru's highest mountain in the Andes range.

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On January 10, 1962, an avalanche on the slopes of an extinct volcano kills more than 4,000 people in Peru. Nine towns and seven smaller villages were destroyed.

Mount Huascaran rises 22,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains. Beneath it laid many small Peruvian communities, the inhabitants of which farmed in the Rio Santa Valley. On the evening of January 10, as most of the region's people gathered in their homes for dinner, the edge of a giant glacier suddenly broke apart and thundered down the mountain. The block of ice was the size of two skyscrapers and weighed approximately 6 million tons, and it made a loud noise as it fell, which was heard in the towns below.

As avalanches were not unusual in the area, it was common knowledge that there was usually a 20 to 30 minute gap between the sound of the ice cracking off and an avalanche, which gave people time to seek higher ground. However, this time, the avalanche traveled nine-and-a-half miles in only seven minutes, wiping away several communities. The towns of Ranrahirca and Huarascucho were buried under 40 feet of ice, mud, trees, boulders and other debris. Only a handful of people in each town survived. The avalanche finally ended at the Santa River, where it stopped the water flow, causing flooding in nearby areas.

Overall, approximately 4,000 people lost their lives in the avalanche. Some bodies were carried all the way to the Pacific Ocean near Chimbote, 100 miles away. Others were buried under so much debris that their bodies were never recovered. An additional 10,000 farm animals were killed and millions of dollars in crops were destroyed.

Eight years later, an earthquake set off another terrible avalanche in the same area.

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On January 10, 1962, an avalanche on the slopes of an extinct volcano kills more than 4,000 people in Peru. Nine towns and seven smaller villages were destroyed. Mount Huascaran rises 22,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains. Beneath it laid many small Peruvian communities, the inhabitants of which farmed in the Rio Santa Valley.

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That fateful day, people did not know that it was an ALUD, as many did not flee, they thought that the Ranrahirca river had increased its flow as a result of the rains of that time. They even say that many who were in the southern part of the district began to go north to see the "lloclla" or Huayco that was coming. Realizing the magnitude of the avalanche they ran. However, many people could not flee because the central area where the houses, the church, its square, the main street were in the center of the path of the alluvium. The effect occurred due to a rapid increase in temperatures. The ice mass traveled 16 kilometers at a speed of 120 km / h and in just 4 minutes the mixture of stone, ice and rocks reached the bottom of the valley.That day 2,900 inhabitants disappeared and the towns of Ranrahirca, Shacsha, Huarascucho, Yanama Chico, Matacoto, Chuquibamba, Caya, Encayor, Armapampa and Uchucoto were erased from the map. This catastrophe left its mark on the population of the area, there was a clear breach of trust between the locals and the state. The government didn´t know what to say and they sent us to study the place to find solutions.

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Bemays and I were very concerned about the danger in the place, but we did not have the political or economic power to solve the problem. On January 10th, the most traumatic day of my life began, I woke up early and I had to go to Ranrahirca because I needed some equipment for another job that was in my office there,  when I was arriving I saw something very strange in the mountain and also it was very hot, I received a call of my wife and I stopped to have some food. The night was coming, a thunderous noise that came from the slopes of Huascarán, woke up the inhabitants of that time .. The people were already preparing for the other day and were returning to their homes but they were surrounded by a gigantic mass of mud, stones, trees and ice that came from Huascarán. It was a gigantic ALUD that had been unleashed as a result of the collapse of the north peak of the snow-capped mountain. I had the opportunity to flee, some inhabitants entered my car and we had the avalanche behind us but the terrain was mountainous and this helped us buy time to escape, the avalanche the avalanche traveled many kilometers but I was about 15 km from the place and this saved me.

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Today, I am going to tell you about the most traumatic day of my life, the day the planet showed us who is the boss. Firstly, my name is Oscar Swayer, I used to work as a scientist a job that marked my life and let me understand how the planet works, since I was only a kid my curiousity about the planet started so I decided to dedicate my whole life studying about the unpredictable events that happen in the world. In 1962, I was doing field work with the scientist Bemays in Huascaran, we were studying the mountain to determinate if the place was safe, after studying the mountain range we made a report in which we said that the largest mountain, contained badly cracked and very weakened rocks, as well as glacial ice that could crumble. We warn that, at any moment, a huge avalanche could occur, endangering entire cities like Yungay and Mancos. What happened after the announcement of the investigation was a series of newspaper articles that said that we were lying. Finally, the director of the CCLCB, Miguel Elías Pizarro, the body created in 1951 by the government to monitor the Cordillera Blanca, declared something tragic: that our work was exaggerated and hasty.