7.4 Earthquake Kills At Least 240 in Colombia, Rescuers Pull Survivors From Cali Rubble

A 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday, August 10, turning many barrios in the country’s west into “montones de escombros” and killing at least 240 people while leaving “a cerca de 3000 desaparecidas,” as local rescuers and residents worked to find survivors trapped under debris.

““Estoy aquí. Estoy con un bebé””

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In Cali, Brian Osorio Zuluaga said he heard the building La Torre del Limonar collapse and later found a man’s weak voice saying, “Estoy aquí. Estoy con un bebé,” before he and six others helped extract the baby before emergency services arrived.

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Osorio Zuluaga described deciding to keep going after a woman warned him about a possible gas leak, saying, “Empecé a pensar en todas las cosas que podrían pasar, pero luego decidí que tenía que seguir adelante.”

Reuters reported that on Tuesday, August 11, a day after the quake, Colombian emergency crews pulled a survivor alive from a collapsed building in Cali as crowds erupted in cheers and celebrations.

In the same city, the article says firefighters rescued Diana Troncoso, 31, after a 16-hour operation in the afternoon of August 11, while bodies of some of the 95 victims in Cali still lay in the streets covered with sheets.

The earthquake’s impact spread beyond Cali, with the article estimating that in the province of Valle del Cauca, 5.000 viviendas were destroyed and 188 people remained disappeared, while it also described conditions in Pereira as “particularmente grave.”

In Pereira, the article says it was believed that at least 53 people were trapped in 58 collapsed buildings, while El Diario reported that 11 people were missing and at least 66 had died.

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The same source described a family tragedy in Bahía Solano, near the epicenter, where Mateo Valencia, 6, died when the house of his family collapsed, and it quoted the local government saying, “La muerte de Mateo ha entristecido profundamente a nuestra agencia y a toda la administración de Bahía Solano.”

In Pereira, the El Comercio account said Juan Felipe Mercado escaped with his daughter of “un año y medio” after a wall fell behind them, and it placed him at 7:30 de la mañana with his daughter María Belén in his arms near the avenue 30 de Agosto and the center of Pereira.

El Comercio also said the earthquake struck at 7:34, hora local, with epicenter in San José del Palmar, Chocó, and it described rescue work in Cali at carrera 5 con calle 44 where firefighters and other teams worked for more than four hours before extracting a man of approximately 35 years alive.

As rescue teams continued searching for people trapped under rubble more than 36 hours after the quake, El Nacional.cat said the first 48 to 72 hours are traditionally considered the “golden window,” even while noting that science questions whether this period can function as a universal limit.

““not, however, a biological law or a formula capable of predicting how long a person can survive.””

El Nacional.cat

The same article explained that survival chances decrease as a trapped person uses up oxygen and water reserves, and it warned against rigid deadlines, writing that the “four-rule” is “not, however, a biological law or a formula capable of predicting how long a person can survive.”

It also cited precedents for rescues beyond 72 hours, including that after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023, some survivors were removed from rubble up to ten days later.

International aid efforts were described alongside the ongoing searches, with the International Rescue Committee saying a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia on August 10, killing at least 181 people and injuring over 1,300, with the epicenter in the department of Chocó.

Reuters’ video report framed the immediate rescue push in Cali on August 11, while the IRC said its teams were reporting damage to infrastructure including “hospitals and clinics,” and that six airports had been impacted and remained closed.