TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – After yet another earthquake in Latin America, a group of students at Florida State University is rallying to help those suddenly left with nothing.
Last Friday, a series of major earthquakes rocked Panama. A 7.7 magnitude earthquake leveled hundreds of homes and schools.
The country’s leaders declared a state of emergency, although no deaths have been reported as of Tuesday.
For FSU Senior Fabiola Torres, the news of the quake was terrifying to see. She said calls and texts to her family back home weren’t going through.
“At first, I was scared because I didn’t know what had happened to my family,” she told WCTV.
After an excruciating wait, she was able to confirm her family- and their homes- were okay.
Still, even though folks in Panama City were spared the worst, recent memories of buildings crumbling in Venezuela and Colombia from earthquakes this year sparked panic. Torres said people were scrambling to escape buildings in case they were seconds away from collapsing.
“They didn’t know if it was going to be the same, if, like, the buildings were going to fall, if they were going to die,” she said.
Days later, it’s clear the biggest need is in the countryside, Torres said.
“They don’t have houses. They lost all of their stuff,” she said. “They don’t have anywhere they can cook, anywhere they can clean themselves. It’s just, like, awful.”
Torres said she has Panamanian friends at FSU who have family who lost their homes.
She’s president of the Panamanian Student Association at the university. The group knew they couldn’t stand by and watch.
Over the weekend, they established a GoFundMe page to raise funds for TECHO, a non-profit that focuses on building affordable homes for those in need.
Torres said while emergency supplies, food, and water are the focus now, she knows the long term issue will be stable shelter for those who lost their homes.
“If it took them years to build just one little house and then it just got wrecked in one hour, the thing that worried us the most is when they’re going to be able to rebuild one,” she said.
The group blew past their initial $500 goal in just a few hours. As of Tuesday afternoon, they were nearing their new $1200 goal.
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