Cali in Ruins: 7.4 Earthquake Leaves Dead and Displaced

Cali, a city in western Colombia, faces a tragedy of devastating proportions after the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck on August 18, 2026. The tremor, which goes beyond a mere seismograph reading, triggered a humanitarian emergency with over 132 deaths in the Valle del Cauca capital and a growing number of displaced.

Search for Survivors Amidst the Rubble

Rescue teams are focusing their efforts on four critical points, where 19 people remain buried under heavy concrete slabs. In the Torres del Limonar residential complex, in the south of the city, the silence is broken only by the sound of chisels, heavy machinery, and rescue dogs. A similar scene is repeated near the Bullring, in the Cuarto de Legua neighborhood, also in the south, where debris removal in the Ana Pilar building is carried out with extreme caution to prevent further collapses.

In the Los Cámbulos neighborhood, cranes attempt to remove dense layers of cement from the Vanessa building, whose structure collapsed onto an adjacent area. Another epicenter of rescue efforts is the University Hospital del Valle (HUV), where there is a desperate search for José Guillermo Roncancio, a patient hospitalized for 36 days, and his wife, Nancy López. At the same location, relatives of Héctor Fabio Sánchez await news of his wife and 17-year-old son, trapped after the collapse of one of the building's wings.

Stories of Miracle and Total Loss

A few kilometers from the HUV, the tragedy also revealed a miracle for a taxi driver's family. Jhon González, 44, witnessed the collapse of his fourth-floor apartment in a five-story building, located opposite the Miguel Calero hockey coliseum, in Canchas Panamericanas. Minutes before the disaster, he had gone out to retrieve the taxi he drives for his daily livelihood.

Feeling the ground shake “like a violent swell,” his first thought was his family. Defying the imminent collapse, he managed to climb the stairs to the fourth floor. He found his wife and 18-year-old son paralyzed by panic. “The earth moved from side to side with a terrifying back and forth, as if it were made of paper. I felt the world splitting in two, but instinct pushed me inside. I had to get my wife and my boy out,” González recounted, his voice choked. He dragged them to the exit in a race against time. “We put one foot on the sidewalk of Calle 9. The entire building came down behind us,” he explained, describing a deafening noise and a cloud of dust. “We are alive by a miracle,” he confessed, looking at the rubble of his home.

The building housed two families, a church, and a florist. González lost everything: “All my life stayed there,” he said, while staying in a house with the help of neighbors. “I had a total loss of everything, everything as you can see here,” the taxi driver reiterated.

Increase in Displacement and New Risks

While the city removes the material memory of Cali, a new phenomenon of urban displacement spreads through the neighborhoods. Initially, the south of the city was the most affected area, with the collapse of 46 buildings in the Capri, Cuarto de Legua, Tequendama, Nueva Tequendama, and San Fernando neighborhoods. However, the risk map has notably extended.

Dozens of families have been forced to evacuate their homes and apartments in sectors of the east and north of the city, areas initially believed to be safe. Cracks in facades and deep structural damage forced residents to abandon their homes. Lina Silva and her three daughters left the Chiminangos neighborhood because their fifth-floor apartment is uninhabitable. Yurley Quiñónez and her four young children cannot return to their home in the Villa Luz settlement. Mercedes Jiménez showed the damage to her apartment in the Los Guaduales building, in northeast Cali, and her tenant is also looking for a place to live.

In the north, between Avenidas 3N and 4N with Calles 34 and 52, in the La Flora and San Vicente neighborhoods, at least four buildings were evacuated due to structural risks. In the five-story building on Calle 34 Norte with Avenida 2BIS, residents of nine apartments await the opinion of a private engineer and a visit from professionals from the Cali City Hall. “Here we had to evacuate because the building was left without walls. We are staying with relatives, fortunately,” said publicist Rubén Valentierra, in front of the damaged structure of what was the Gracias a Dios apartment complex, in the south of Cali. “We are awaiting what the City Hall informs us about what will happen with our apartments and where we will go from here,” he stated, amidst the uncertainty.

In the Aguablanca district, in the Poblado II neighborhood, where the four-story building of Notaria 20 completely collapsed, a call for help to the authorities emerged. A person who worked in a shapewear factory on Calle 72W, number 28B106, reported that the building was very damaged and is leaning. “We need you to please help us spread the video, because we need Civil Defense or the Firefighters or someone to help us because the house is about to fall and we want to avoid a bigger tragedy. We need help, help from the government, from the city hall, from the mayor,” the woman added.

Balance of Structural Damages

Recent data from the City Hall indicates 4,373 citizen reports processed for infrastructure in poor condition. The balance shows 126 verified buildings with partial collapse and 182 with structural damage, after inspection. This scenario adds to the 46 buildings that completely collapsed in the south of the Valle del Cauca capital. Cali is divided between mourning for those who are gone, the anguish of families awaiting a miracle in the ruins of HUV, Los Cámbulos, Limonar, and Cuarto de Legua, and the helplessness of those who, having survived the earthquake, seek refuge in Canchas Panamericanas. The earthquake has passed, but its social aftershocks are only beginning to be felt.

With information from El Tiempo.