Cali, home to two million people<\/a>, were at 100 percent capacity and declared a \u201cred alert for hospitals\u201d there.<\/p>\nCali, Colombia\u2019s third-largest city and the capital of the Valle del Cauca province in the Pacific region, is one of the worst-affected areas.<\/p>\n
At least 96 died here, while 1,224 others were injured and 111 are officially missing. Authorities say some 45 buildings collapsed, while 832 suffered damage.<\/p>\n
![\"German](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC02140-2-1786650860.jpg\")
German Escobar, Cali\u2019s public health secretary, has said the healthcare system in the region is \u2018stable\u2019, despite the influx of earthquake patients [Alfie Pannell \/ Al Jazeera]How Cali\u2019s hospitals adapted<\/p>\n
But on Wednesday \u2013 less than 72 hours into the crisis \u2013 a combination of effective organisation, plentiful volunteers, and support from the national government has led local health officials to describe the situation as stable.<\/p>\n
The United Nations\u2019 Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Wednesday that the \u201chospital system has stabilised as patients have been discharged and the number of new admissions has decreased\u201d.<\/p>\n
But \u201ca red alert remains declared for hospitals in the city\u201d, it said.<\/p>\n
The city averted disaster despite the collapse of key health institutions by enacting a strategy to boost the capacity of the institutions less affected by the earthquake, officials said.<\/p>\n
German Escobar, Cali\u2019s public health secretary, told Al Jazeera that the city had implemented a plan to create \u201cexpansion zones\u201d, largely in and around existing health institutions, to handle the surge in patients.<\/p>\n
These include utilising operating rooms that were previously not in use and recovery areas \u2013 where patients go after surgery \u2013 that were partially or fully closed before the earthquake.<\/p>\n
In other hospitals \u2013 like the private Clinica Nuestra \u2013 the expansion zones come in the form of temporary field clinics.<\/p>\n
The hospital was forced to relocate patients after a partial collapse.<\/p>\n
Here, an ambulance lies crushed by fallen debris, with a buckled \u201cEmergency Room\u201d sign hanging loosely above it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation is now stable,\u201d Escobar said.<\/p>\n
He noted that while there is still stress on the healthcare system, particularly for patients with chronic illnesses struggling to access medications, the threat of hospitals being overwhelmed and unable to attend to those in need has now been contained.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless another major mass event occurs that overwhelms emergency and inpatient services, the system should be fully stabilised,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The health secretary credited the recovery of the city\u2019s hospital system to successful coordination between government officials, relief organisations and volunteers.<\/p>\n
![\"Enrique](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC07518-1786650974.jpg\")
Enrique Zapata, the head of logistics at the NGO SARES, coordinates with other aid workers via walkie-talkie at the site of the collapsed Vanessa apartment building in Cali [Euan Wallace\/Al Jazeera]Volunteers help ease pressure<\/p>\n
Relief efforts also depended on vast resources and manpower from civil society organisations.<\/p>\n
Enrique Zapata, head of logistics at Cali-based health NGO SARES, stood in front of a crowded medical tent at the foot of the Vanessa apartment \u2013 a six-storey building that collapsed on August 10. The medical tent primarily serves volunteers, treating them as they carry out rescue operations.<\/p>\n
As rescuers hurried past carrying buckets and shovels, he described the first moments after the earthquake.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone first checked on their family, and after that, all of us who are first responders, we immediately got in touch with the organisations we belong to,\u201d said the medic.<\/p>\n
He explained that emergency responders followed a plan, named the Incident Command System, which guided their immediate response \u2013 a system set up in advance to prepare for disasters that coordinates how government agencies and civil society groups can work together in the event of disasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cPersonally, I think the city was well-prepared,\u201d Zapata told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
Beyond protocol, rescue workers were spurred to work through the night by a sense of duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though your body often tells you, \u2018I want to rest\u2019, the adrenaline and the desire to help keep you from doing so,\u201d explained Zapata.<\/p>\n
Ricardo Castillo, an army veteran volunteering as a nurse at another collapse site in Cali, described a similar mobilisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work of the people in charge of all this has been spectacular,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Behind him, volunteers worked alongside firefighters, police and military personnel among the shattered concrete and metal rebar, removing debris in buckets by passing them hand to hand along chains of rescuers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe support is infinite. These people are wonderful,\u201d added Castillo.<\/p>\n
![\"Rescuers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/DSC07469-1786651077.jpg\")
Rescuers attempt to locate survivors beneath the rubble of a collapsed apartment block close to Refugio Park in Cali [Euan Wallace\/Al Jazeera]Colombia and Venezuela\u2019s earthquake responses compared<\/p>\n
The quake\u2019s timing and location \u2013 just weeks after magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 earthquakes struck<\/a> neighbouring Venezuela on June 24 \u2013 has prompted comparisons between the two countries\u2019 responses.<\/p>\nThe scale of the disaster in Venezuela was far greater than in Colombia, with more than 6,000 killed.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s government has faced sharp criticism over its response, with survivors saying help never arrived in the crucial first hours and days. Civilians led much of the relief effort, especially in the first two days, while delayed orders from senior military commanders and widespread confusion hampered the deployment of troops, according to media reports.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is inevitable to compare the responses of both countries,\u201d said Marianella Herrera, Director of the Caracas-based Venezuelan Health Observatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn one country, there is clearly a much more coordinated and coherent response, while in the other \u2013 which is, of course, Venezuela \u2013 the response is much more fragmented from an institutional standpoint.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Herrera noted a great deal of solidarity and support from the Venezuelan population, she blamed inadequate coordination within the country\u2019s health system for the comparatively poor response to the tragedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lack of organisation and leadership in the Venezuelan healthcare system exacerbates a situation that calls for a well-coordinated and robust healthcare system,\u201d said the health expert.<\/p>\n
Venezuelan authorities have rejected criticism of their response as the product of \u201cmedia laboratories\u201d.<\/p>\n
In Cali, rescuers say the crisis is far from over. With dozens still missing in the city and more than 500 officially recorded as missing nationwide, health workers say the emergency is unlikely to ease anytime soon.<\/p>\n
Emergency workers are still calling for all the help they can get.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these situations, there is no such thing as too much. Every little helps,\u201d said Castillo<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cali, Colombia \u2013 At the University Hospital of the Valle Evaristo Garcia, health workers in blue scrubs moved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,32976,43179,137,500,36088,4217,2186,44,212043,22474],"class_list":["post-858129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-colombia","tag-earthquakes","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-humanitarian-crises","tag-infrastructure","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-ngo","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}