{"id":318296,"date":"2026-08-11T01:42:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:42:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318296\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T01:42:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T01:42:52","slug":"colombians-in-queens-unite-in-grief-over-earthquake-that-devastated-their-homeland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318296\/","title":{"rendered":"Colombians in Queens unite in grief over earthquake that devastated their homeland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/colombia-earthquake-western-region-evacuations\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia<\/a> on Monday has left people concerned all over the world, especially in Queens, which has one of the largest Colombian American populations in the New York City area.<\/p>\n<p>In northwest parts of the borough, with Colombian restaurants and flags on street corners and storefronts, the South American pride is hard to miss. On Monday, there was also a shared sadness.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Queens Borough President Donovan Richards said his team will be working with community groups and nonprofits to help families affected by the disaster.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Televisions, even inside businesses, were turned on to the news about the tragedy more than 2,400 miles away.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Watching the news since this morning. It&#8217;s very sad what happened in Colombia,&#8221; said Bello Florido, owner of Pimpollo Colombian restaurant in East Elmhurst.<\/p>\n<p>Florido said he watched with tears and said a prayer every time the death toll went up.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have family at home. We have a lot of friends and everything is totally damaged over there. [It&#8217;s] a very sad situation right now,&#8221; Florido said.<\/p>\n<p>Families and workers in Jackson Heights were also left grappling with the death and destruction in their home country.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are many house and building down. It&#8217;s terrible in my country,&#8221; said Camilo Garcia, a worker at restaurant Pollos Mario. &#8220;Yesterday, everyone is fine. Today is totally different.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Jesus Marz, who works at Barriles Restaurant and Sports Bar, said he was on the phone with his family during the quake.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was literally on a video call with my sister when everything going on and they had to evacuate the building. Thanks to God they are fine,&#8221; Marz said.<\/p>\n<p>As search teams go through the rubble looking for any signs of life, the community in Queens is holding its breath and holding out hope.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a lot of feelings. It involves my whole country, not only my family. Colombia is part of my life,&#8221; Florido said.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7.4-magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia on Monday has left people concerned all over the world, especially&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318297,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[6611,1224,47737,10400,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-318296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-colombia","tag-earthquake","tag-east-elmhurst","tag-jackson-heights","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}