South Florida organizations are working to get critical search-and-rescue equipment to Colombia in the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, packing everything from flashlights and gloves to ropes and first-aid kits.<\/p>\n
The Help Land Foundation and Fundaci\u00f3n 7 Estrellas are among the groups collecting and preparing supplies they say are urgently needed by crews searching through rubble in areas including Cali and Pereira.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the things going on this plane are specifically what they need to save more people,\u201d said Ender Urdaneta with the Help Land Foundation.<\/p>\n
At an Opa-locka airplane hangar, volunteers filled backpacks with emergency supplies.<\/p>\n
Allanys Gonz\u00e1lez of Fundaci\u00f3n 7 Estrellas showed off some of the equipment being packed, including flashlights, gloves, bandages and first-aid kits. Other bags contain ropes that can be used by rescue crews.<\/p>\n
The supplies are being carefully sorted and weighed before being loaded onto a private jet donated by a Colombian medical doctor.<\/p>\n
The plane has already been used twice to deliver aid to Venezuela following devastating earthquakes in June. Now, the groups are turning their attention to Colombia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of helping those in need and making sure it gets to the right place,\u201d Urdaneta said.<\/p>\n
The jet has a limited capacity of about 3,000 pounds, meaning organizers have to carefully determine what can be loaded for each trip.<\/p>\n
The groups say timing is critical. With only days having passed since the earthquake, they believe getting specialized equipment to search-and-rescue crews quickly could improve the chances of finding and rescuing survivors.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another aid drive is underway in Doral, where organizers are also collecting rescue equipment for Colombia.<\/p>\n
Volunteers are needed, including people who can help with the heavy lifting.<\/p>\n
So far, the organizations say they have been able to send about five tons of aid to Colombia.<\/p>\n
But getting more supplies there will require money.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have the plane. We only need the money for all the expenses on the flight,\u201d Urdaneta said.<\/p>\n
Organizers estimate they need as much as $16,000 to cover the flight-related expenses.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery cent counts,\u201d Urdaneta said.<\/p>\n
For Gonz\u00e1lez, the relief effort is personal. She is half Colombian and half Venezuelan and has family in the area affected by the earthquake.<\/p>\n
Her relatives are safe, but she knows many others are still waiting for help.<\/p>\n
The organizations say donations and volunteers can help them continue sending equipment to the rescue crews working in the hardest-hit areas of Colombia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Florida organizations are working to get critical search-and-rescue equipment to Colombia in the aftermath of a deadly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4528,28,30,29,807],"class_list":["post-370868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-colombia","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-south-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}