Volunteers remove rubble at the scene of a collapsed building in Pereira, Colombia, on Tuesday after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck a day earlier. Photo by Carlos Ortega/EPA
Aug. 12 (UPI) — Cali, the capital of Colombia’s Valle del Cauca department, has become the center of rescue operations after a magnitude-7.4 earthquake struck the country Monday.
With the official death toll in the city reaching 75, more than 1,000 people injured and widespread infrastructure damage, Urban Search and Rescue teams are concentrating their efforts on searching 56 large buildings that collapsed or sustained severe structural damage, most of them in southern and central Cali.
“We have 24 hours left. At the end of that period, the first 72-hour window closes, although that does not mean there will not be survivors afterward, but it does become more difficult,” Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder told Blu Radio.
Eder said rescue teams were searching eight locations where survivors could potentially be found, though he did not provide a figure for the number of people missing. He said 700 homes were affected, including 107 with structural damage.
Cali officials also imposed a nighttime curfew and deployed military forces across the city following reports and threats of looting in several areas.
According to the latest report from Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, the earthquake has killed 239 people and injured 3,755 across 388 municipalities nationwide. Nearly 50,000 people have been affected by the disaster.
Authorities said 45,547 homes were damaged, 9,215 were destroyed and 140 buildings collapsed after the earthquake. The Colombian Geological Service recorded 130 aftershocks as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, Noticias Caracol reported.
Damage was also reported at 188 health facilities, 530 community centers, 1,667 educational facilities and along 129 roads.
Pereira is another city where search-and-rescue operations remain concentrated.
In the capital of the Risaralda department, 65 buildings completely collapsed. Disaster management officials reported that more than 1,000 homes sustained severe damage, leaving hundreds of families displaced, Colombian news outlet El Colombiano reported.
In a rescue operation that lasted 36 hours, emergency crews and firefighters pulled 32-year-old Daniela Largo Sánchez alive from the rubble in Pereira.
Largo remained in intensive care at San Jorge Hospital in Pereira following her rescue. Her father, Julio César Largo, said she was admitted to the intensive care unit after medical personnel performed resuscitation efforts for about 20 minutes to stabilize her.
President Abelardo de la Espriella’s government declared three days of national mourning for the earthquake victims.
The government also declared a national disaster for 12 months, with the possibility of an extension, in the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Cauca, Chocó, Quindío, Cundinamarca, Risaralda, Huila, Valle del Cauca, Tolima, Putumayo and Norte de Santander — the areas hardest hit by the earthquake.
The decree also requires the Finance Ministry to ensure funding for the emergency response through the National Disaster Risk Management Fund.
In response to the scale of the disaster, De la Espriella issued an urgent appeal for international assistance from the United Nations to deploy specialized personnel and channel financial resources to the hardest-hit areas in Cali and Pereira.
Delegations from the United States and Spain, along with Mexican rescue specialists known as Los Topos, are already in Colombia conducting operations with advanced urban rescue equipment, stabilization drones and search dogs.
Germany, Canada, France, Japan and the United Kingdom also joined international relief efforts, sending supplies including field hospitals, water purification systems and tons of medical supplies, as well as financial contributions to the national reconstruction fund.
Vice President José Manuel Restrepo said Colombia has received offers of international assistance totaling $1.3 billion. He also said the United States had expressed its intention to contribute between $15 million and $16 million for the initial phase of the disaster response, Infobae reported.
