Overview
- A magnitude-7.4 quake struck near San José del Palmar on Monday at 07:34 local time, severely affecting Chocó, Cali, Pereira and other cities in the center-west of Colombia.
- Rescue teams and volunteers are still searching through collapsed buildings for survivors while official death tolls have risen into the low hundreds and thousands remain injured or unlocated.
- Major hospitals were damaged or evacuated, producing a critical bottleneck in medical care and forcing patients to be moved and emergency services to work at full capacity.
- Multiple countries and international agencies have offered or dispatched aid, including a U.S. DART team and a $15.5 million package, but Colombia has prioritized specific supplies and formal coordination before accepting some foreign rescue contingents.
- The quake hit a remote, low-access epicentral region with weak emergency capacity, which has slowed damage assessment and relief delivery and may shape a long recovery that will require reconstruction funding and sustained humanitarian support.