The Worlds Saddest Photograph of Omayra Sanchez

Thirteen-year-old Omayra Sánchez spent sixty hours trapped in rising, filthy water. Her legs were pinned by rubble, her voice calm, her death slow and public. When the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted on November 13, 1985, it triggered a mudflow that killed over 23,000 people and buried the town of Armero. The haunting image of Omayra in her final hours, later called "the world’s saddest photograph", became a symbol of government failure and a global reminder of what happens when warnings go ignored.

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