Colombia's Natural Disaster --- Digging Out

"We are trying to get everyone out alive."

"One of the rescuers asked anyone trapped to whistle, and someone whistled back."

"They pulled out a man and a baby, but the wife is still in there."

"A lot of people have come, with supplies, with food, helping the firefighters, helping the people."

Andres Felipe Mejia, Cali volunteer 

 

"Let's remember that Colombia is full of active fault lines."

"The question isn't whether it can happen again. The question is rather when an earthquake of similar magnitude will occur at another of Colombia's seismic sources." 

Rodrigo León Loya, seismologist, geosciences professor, University of the Andes 

 

"There are many damaged buildings, collapsed buildings, people trapped and fatalities; the quake felt here was very severe."

"What has happened here in my country has been very hard and very sad."

"[My immediate family is safe, but] we are saddened by the loss of life." 

Sarria, Cali taxi driver  

PBS News

 

"Local communities were already facing armed conflict and high levels of poverty long before the ground began to shake. Chocó, at the epicenter of the quake, is the poorest region in the country."

"We are deeply concerned that today’s natural disaster will make the needs on the ground even steeper as people lose access to health care and other essential services."

Nicole Kast, International Rescue Committee director for Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador  

Volunteers in Colombia cleared rubble by hand as they worked through the night Monday, into Tuesday hunting for survivors of an earthquake that left at least 181 people dead, destroying over 100 homes and office buildings. Several cities were struck across Colombia's coffee-growing region and Pacific belt on Monday at 7:34 a.m. Structures toppled, towers swayed and roof tiles tumbled to the ground. There was a reported 100 aftershocks.

 

The hardest hit was Pereira, a city of 500,000 residents. Residents attempted to navigate dark streets with the help of flashlights, searching the ruins of shops and offices in a six-storey building. "It's so sad to see the whole city like this, knowing that there may still be people alive under there" 25-year-old Juana Marin said, joining dozens of other volunteers to clear the rubble.

 

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, this was the country's strongest earthquake in a century, as well as being one of its deadliest natural disasters.The mayors of major affected cities issued a joint statement to announce that at last count 181 people had been killed, with over 2,595 others injured. 

 

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A man rests near the site of earthquake damage in Pereira on Monday.  Alexis Munera / Anadolu via Getty Images

 

 A state of emergency was declared by newly-elected Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella, while vowing to oversee a concerted rescue effort. He was mobilizing "the entire military and police apparatus", deploying engineers, rescue workers and search dogs. Rescue volunteers went to work with picks, basic tools and their bare hands in Cali in a desperate bid to find survivors. Human chains were formed to expeditiously and safely remove bricks and masonry. Work was halted every few minutes so the rescuers could listen for signs of life from anyone trapped within the rubble. 

 

Red alerts were declared Monday in hospitals in five Colombian cities, while a nighttime curfew was declared in Cali. "It felt like the end of the world -- cars and motorcycles driving the wrong way, everyone searching for their loved ones", explained Nelson Moreno, a volunteer rescue worker. In the capital Bogota crowds rushed out into the streets still clad in pyjamas. 

 

The 7.4 magnitude quake and its initial powerful aftershock of 5.0 was felt across Colombia, and also felt in neighbouring Ecuador and Panama. The quake, at a depth of 110 kilometres, was likely caused by movement along a deep fault within the Nazca tectonic plate, according to experts at the U.S. Geological Survey.  

 

Residents and police carry a survivor pulled from the rubble after an earthquake struck Pereira, on Monday.   Miguel Angel Lopez / AP

 

"There are towns where people have lost everything, where people have died, where homes have been destroyed."

"We don’t have a full panorama of the damage, but we know it’s been massive."

"[The government’s response has so far been] concentrated in the capital, [authorities were flying the wounded from Quibdo to hospitals in the city of Medellín]."

Sterling Palacios, a regional environmental leader