A 7.4 Earthquake Just Killed at Least 77 People in Western Colombia
A powerful earthquake has devastated Colombia’s coffee-growing region, killing dozens and trapping people beneath collapsed buildings as rescue crews race to reach survivors. The disaster struck just days into the term of a newly sworn-in president who had never before held elected office.
A 7.4 earthquake killed at least 77 people in western Colombia, and workers are still digging bodies out of collapsed buildings.
The quake hit early Monday near Colombia’s Pacific coast, but the coffee-growing region inland took the worst of it. In Risaralda province alone, 42 people are dead.
Risaralda province, in Colombia’s coffee-growing region, reported the most deaths at 42, followed by 27 in Valle del Cauca, 4 in Chocó, 3 in Manizales and 1 in Antioquia.
The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude at 7.4 and the epicenter near San José del Palmar, in sparsely populated Chocó on the Pacific coast, at a depth of about 107 km. The shaking reached major cities nationwide and was felt across the border in Venezuela.
In Cali, one of Colombia’s largest cities, Mayor Alejandro Eder said more than two dozen structures collapsed with people buried underneath, and rescue teams were requested from Bogotá and Medellín. In Pereira, 18 were killed. A tower of Manizales’ cathedral, the tallest in Colombia, came down into the streets below.
The disaster hit days into the term of President Abelardo De La Espriella, a right-wing lawyer and Trump ally sworn in Friday in Cali who had never before held elected office. He said he was suspending his planned activities to run the emergency response from a command post in Bogotá.
“To the Colombians who are going through difficult times today, I want to say: you are not alone,” he wrote on X. “You have a president who cares deeply for his people.”
The USGS warned that “significant casualties and damage are likely and the disaster is potentially widespread.” Venezuela was struck by twin earthquakes in June that killed more than 6,000 people.
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