15,000 and 18,000 killed in Yungay and the surrounding villages, although some sources cite a death toll as high as 22,000 or 25,000. Only about 400 people survived in Yungay proper, 300 of which were children, who had been attending a circus in the local stadium; reportedly a clown led them to higher ground just in time before the mudflow struck. Ninety-two people also survived by climbing an artificial hill at the town cemetery. These were the only structures in town that remained intact, along with "a statue of Jesus Christ with his arms outstretched, standing tall above the rubble" which remains today as a memorial to the dead. A photograph of four palm trees that once surrounded Yungay's main plaza, half buried in the mudflow but still standing, became symbolic of the disaster. The debris covered a total area of and reached depths of up to in the Ranrahirca area; in places the flow spread as wide as . Yungay town was buried under about of debris. Much of the mud that initially buried the city drained away within a few days of the disaster, leaving a plain of larger rocks which remains today in much the same state. Aftermath Relief efforts Due to Yungay's cultural and economic importance as the capital of Yungay Province, many survivors not only from Yungay but the surrounding villages resisted government efforts to resettle them elsewhere. Within a year of the disaster, some 2,000 survivors had clustered in the refugee camp known as "Yungay Norte", only a few hundred metres north of the destroyed city. Although this location was much safer from landslides than old Yungay, it was geographically constrained – "aid personnel speculated that if the capital of the province were relocated there, it would soon outgrow the safe area and spill over into dangerous zones." The national government created the Comisión de Reconstrucción y Rehabilitación de la Zona Afectada (CRYRZA) agency to oversee aid and reconstruction efforts in the areas affected by the Ancash earthquake. Soon after the disaster, authorities supervised repair of Yungay's irrigation systems which had been destroyed by the mudflow. However, the year's agricultural output still fell far short of normal. Relief efforts were hindered by the damage to roads and bridges in rough terrain; "it took two or three days for supplies to reach the upper Santa valley by road from Lima airport." There was controversy over