![\"Rescue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d750-614.jpg\"\/)
\nRescue workers ask for silence as they search for survivors<\/p>\n
Colombia’s disaster relief chief has vowed to find the hundreds of people still missing after a massive earthquake, as rescuers dug through rubble following the end of a critical lifesaving period.<\/p>\n
The strongest quake to hit Colombia this century devastated the western cities of Cali and Pereira and destroyed nearly 13,000 homes across the coffee-growing region and along the coast.<\/p>\n
The 7.4-magnitude tremor struck on Monday, killing 281 people and injuring almost 4,000, President Abelardo de la Espriella told reporters, while 379 others remained missing.<\/p>\n
Rescuers had little hope of finding more survivors, who are typically saved in the first 72 hours after an earthquake.<\/p>\n
David Tamayo, head of Colombia’s disaster relief agency, acknowledged that the “likelihood of finding survivors is going to diminish”.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
In Cali, many families that lost their homes sought refuge in makeshift camps set up in streets and parks.<\/p>\n
Mayor Alejandro Eder said nine search-and-rescue efforts remained active, and called for silence in these areas so rescue workers could listen for signs of survivors.<\/p>\n
\nRescue workers ask for silence as they search for survivors<\/p>\n
‘Lost my home’<\/p>\n
Mr De la Espriella has declared the disaster an “economic emergency” and announced three days of national mourning.<\/p>\n
“We will do what is necessary,” the newly appointed leader said, vowing to “emerge again as a country and as a society.”<\/p>\n
Javier Alzate, a 79-year-old psychologist, was trying to remove tiles and chunks of debris that were obstructing access to his damaged home in Pereira.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
The impoverished Choco region on the Pacific coast also suffered immensely, with some of its remote communities yet to be surveyed.<\/p>\n
In the neighbouring Valle del Cauca region, Governor Dilian Francisca Toro said officials were conducting a census of damaged and destroyed homes to determine which buildings could still be occupied.<\/p>\n
“We have to begin working because people simply cannot bear staying out on the streets any longer,” she said.<\/p>\n
“People are telling us: ‘If you give us the materials, we’ll do the work ourselves,'” Ms Toro said, describing plans for community-led reconstruction efforts.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d74f-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA dog named Renata is carried after being rescued from underneath the rubble in Cali<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/0024d751-614.jpg\"\/)
\nThe government has estimated the quake destroyed more than 12,500 homes<\/p>\n
‘Not alone’<\/p>\n
Many Colombians have mobilised to help, bringing water, food and supplies to affected neighbourhoods, while long lines have formed outside blood donation centres.<\/p>\n
Quake victims “are not alone, that is a message we want to convey,” one volunteer organising donations in the capital Bogota, told AFP.<\/p>\n
“We are here giving what we can so that they at least have the most basic things,” she said.<\/p>\n
A musician in Cali took to offering hugs to anyone who needed emotional support.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
Colombia was preparing to receive international urban search-and-rescue teams from the United States, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel, disaster authorities said.<\/p>\n
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that Colombia had refused entry to Mexican rescuers over a claim that they lacked correct certification.<\/p>\n
De la Espriella’s administration is facing criticism over allegedly blocking rescue teams from countries with leftist leadership, but it has denied the accusation.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the World Bank has announced that it had disbursed $200 million in emergency funds for the response to an earthquake in Colombia that killed more than 280 people this week.<\/p>\n
In addition to the aid funds, the World Bank said in a statement that it had launched a “Global Rapid Assessment of Damages from Earthquakes (GRADE) to provide the Government with an early assessment of economic loss to help it prioritize aid and reconstruction efforts”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Colombia’s disaster relief chief has vowed to find the hundreds of people still missing after a massive earthquake,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-595528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}