Mourners will hold a large group funeral for the victims of a massive landslide that killed at least 83 people in northwest Colombia, religious officials have said.
Rescue workers continued searching for victims after the Liboriana River burst its banks early Monday and sent a flood of mud rushing down a ravine, virtually obliterating the small town of La Margarita.
But officials and family members said little hope remained that any of the missing would be found alive.
Fifty-four bodies have been identified at the morgue in the regional capital Medellin and are expected to begin arriving home today, said Ruben Lopez yesterday, the parish priest for Salgar, the municipality of 18,000 people where La Margarita is located.
"There will be a group ceremony," he told AFP. It will be held in Salgar's main park because his church would likely be too small to hold all the mourners, he said.
Awaiting news of their loved ones' fate, survivors wrapped in mud-stained blankets gathered outside the local cemetery, where the bodies were being brought as they were found.
"In the midst of all this tragedy, the only hope we have left is to find them and give them a proper burial," said survivor Jaime Londono.
"I would like to see the search continue until all the families in town find our siblings, children, parents, grandchildren... Whatever relatives there were," said Luz Arboleda, a housewife whose 33-year-old brother is still missing.
His children, 11 and 14, survived the landslide, but their mother did not. Arboleda fears they are among those orphaned by the tragedy.
More than 700 people were left homeless by the landslide, which hit in the middle of the night, when most residents were asleep.
They are being housed in temporary shelters or on the coffee plantations that dot the region's green mountains and are the backbone of its economy.
President Juan Manuel Santos has announced that affected families will receive USD 7,000 each, as well as temporary housing and help to rebuild their homes.
Santos toured the area on Monday. His wife, Maria Clemencia Rodriguez, visited yesterday to hand out aid to the more than 100 children affected by the disaster.
