Colombia Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 254 as Rescuers Search for Survivors

Colombia – (Special Correspondent/Web Desk) – The Colombia earthquake has now claimed 254 lives, officials confirmed on Tuesday, as rescue teams kept digging through fallen buildings in hopes of finding more survivors.

The quake measured 7.4 in magnitude. It struck early Monday and is being called the worst to hit the country in this century.

Whole neighborhoods across western Colombia were left in ruins. Homes, schools, and even hospitals cracked apart or crumbled to the ground.

Two cities took the hardest hit. Pereira lost 101 people, while Cali reported 95 deaths, making them the centers of this tragedy.

Far from the cities, things are just as grim. Indigenous communities in the Choco region remain cut off, with no power and little access to basic supplies.

The disaster struck at an unusual moment. Colombia’s new president, Abelardo De La Espriella, had only just taken office days earlier. He visited the wrecked areas himself and promised help to families who lost everything.

Farmers are suffering too. The National Coffee Federation is now working directly with growers to check how much damage hit farms and rural roads.

Through the night and into the next day, rescue workers never stopped. They used cranes and diggers, but often just their hands, forming human chains to clear rubble piece by piece.

Survivors are sharing their stories, and they are hard to hear. Rosa Gonzalez ran a small guest house in Pereira. She barely made it out with her husband and baby before the building came down.

She recalled the terrifying moment. “The structure started creaking and just as we ran outside the building collapsed,” she said.

Not everyone in her home was as lucky. Out of roughly two dozen guests, only eight escaped alive, and she fears an elderly man on the terrace did not survive.

Some accounts came straight from the ground as it happened. Influencer Jose Gallego had just landed in Pereira when the shaking began, and he caught it live on camera while hiding beneath a table.

He described the chaos around him in simple words. “It was like a nightmare come to life,” he said.

Nearly 100 aftershocks have rattled the region since the main quake, keeping residents on edge and afraid to return indoors.

Thousands of families are now without homes. Many are waiting anxiously to learn if their buildings are even safe to enter again.

In Cali, one collapsed complex became a symbol of both loss and hope. Crowds gathered outside the ruined Torres del Limonar towers, and people cheered loudly when a woman was pulled out alive.

Sadly, not every story ends that way. The city’s morgue is already full, according to public health official German Escobar.

Basic services remain broken across much of the disaster zone. Six airports have shut down, roads are blocked, and phone and power lines are still down in many places.

Choco’s governor summed up the scale of it simply. “The physical damages at the moment are unquantifiable,” she told local media.

Help is now arriving from outside Colombia. The United States pledged $15.5 million for shelter and food, while the Inter-American Development Bank offered up to $50 million for rebuilding.

The United Nations is also stepping in, sending more staff to the coffee region and preparing food stockpiles for displaced families.

With phone lines still down in many areas, officials say it could take several more days before the true scale of the damage — and the final death count — becomes clear.