Colombia’s disaster relief chief has pledged to continue searching for hundreds of people missing after the country’s strongest earthquake this century, even as rescuers work beyond the period when most survivors are typically found.
The 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through the western cities of Cali and Pereira, destroying nearly 13,000 homes across the coffee-growing region and the Pacific coast.
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The quake struck on Monday, killing 281 people and injuring almost 4,000, President Abelardo de la Espriella told reporters. Another 379 people were still unaccounted for.
Rescue teams faced dwindling hopes of finding survivors, most of whom are pulled from the wreckage within the first 72 hours after an earthquake.
“But our commitment is to never stop searching… The order is to not rest until we find all the missing persons,” he said in a video posted by his agency late yesterday.
In Cali, families whose homes were destroyed crowded into makeshift camps in streets and public parks, carrying what belongings they had managed to salvage.
Mayor Alejandro Eder said nine search-and-rescue operations were still under way. He urged residents near the sites to remain silent, allowing workers to listen for any sound from beneath the rubble.
Government figures released yesterday morning recorded at least 273 deaths, many of them in Cali and Pereira, a city in the coffee-growing region, and more than 3,800 injuries.
The same data showed that 377 people remained missing.
Rescue workers call for silence while searching for survivors
‘Lost my home’
Mr De la Espriella has declared the disaster an “economic emergency” and ordered three days of national mourning.
“We will do what is necessary,” the newly appointed leader said, promising that Colombia would “emerge again as a country and as a society.”
In Pereira, Javier Alzate, a 79-year-old psychologist, worked to clear tiles and heavy pieces of debris blocking the entrance to his damaged home.
“It’s very distressing. Very sad. You work 40 or 50 years to buy a little house, struggling all that time to get it. I finally got it, and a few days later it’s gone,” he said. “I lost my home and my car.”
The impoverished Choco region on Colombia’s Pacific coast was also hit hard, and officials had yet to assess some of its isolated communities.
In neighbouring Valle del Cauca, Governor Dilian Francisca Toro said authorities were cataloguing damaged and destroyed homes to establish which buildings remained safe to occupy.
“We have to begin working because people simply cannot bear staying out on the streets any longer,” she said.
Residents, she added, were telling officials: “If you give us the materials, we’ll do the work ourselves,” as communities prepared to take part in rebuilding their neighbourhoods.
A dog named Renata is carried away after being rescued from beneath the rubble in Cali
The government estimates that more than 12,500 homes were destroyed
‘Not alone’
Across Colombia, people have organised relief efforts, delivering water, food and other supplies to devastated neighbourhoods as long queues formed outside blood donation centres.
Earthquake victims “are not alone, that is a message we want to convey,” one volunteer coordinating donations in the capital, Bogota, told AFP.
“We are here giving what we can so that they at least have the most basic things,” she said.
In Cali, a musician offered hugs to people seeking comfort amid the emotional shock of the disaster.
“We are going through a collective trauma, and I think the best way I could help was by giving away the energy I have and the vitality I have left,” he told AFP.
Disaster authorities said Colombia was preparing to receive international urban search-and-rescue teams from the United States, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Colombia had turned away Mexican rescuers after claiming they did not have the required certification.
The administration of Mr De la Espriella has faced criticism over allegations that it blocked rescue teams from countries led by left-wing governments, a charge it has denied.
Meanwhile, the World Bank said it had released $200 million in emergency funding for Colombia’s response to the earthquake, which killed more than 280 people this week.
Alongside the financial assistance, the bank said it had launched a “Global Rapid Assessment of Damages from Earthquakes (GRADE)” to give the government an early estimate of economic losses and help officials direct aid and reconstruction efforts.
