Colombia earthquake deaths approach 300
The number of people known to have died in the earthquake that struck western Colombia on August 10 has reached 289, with 143 still unaccounted for a week after the disaster.
Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella gave the figures in a televised address on August 17, adding that 4,187 people had been injured and 120,328 families registered as affected. He described the tally as preliminary because teams on the ground were still verifying information.
The presidential count was lower than the one issued hours earlier by the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences. The institute said it had received 304 bodies and identified 300 of them, among them 22 children.
It also listed 348 people as reported missing, more than twice the number given by the President. De la Espriella said his government would release only consolidated data out of respect for the victims and their families.
Most of the identified dead came from Cali and Pereira, the two largest cities hit. The remaining bodies were sent from Chocó, Caldas, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca.
De la Espriella also gave a first technical estimate of the economic damage. A private firm had modelled direct physical losses in Chocó, Valle del Cauca, Risaralda, Quindío and Caldas at close to 30 trillion pesos (€8.2 billion), he said.
About 24.5 trillion pesos (€6.7 billion) of that related to buildings and 5.5 trillion pesos (€1.5 billion) to infrastructure. The figure would be adjusted as more information came in, he added.
The proportional impact was highest in Chocó, even though the absolute value of losses there was lower. He called for a “Marshall Plan” for the department, which he said had been historically neglected.
Housing minister Jaime Andrés Beltrán was appointed to lead the reconstruction programme, to be financed through a new state fund.
The quake affected 450 municipalities across 15 departments, about a third of Colombian territory. It destroyed 26,945 homes and damaged a further 127,557, according to the presidency.
De la Espriella put the number of foreign rescue workers deployed at 138, of whom 82 were Israeli, 32 Ecuadorean and 24 American.
Colombia has also drawn on the EU civil protection mechanism, under which Sweden, Germany and Luxembourg have offered tents, blankets, kitchen sets and water filters. The European Commission has committed €2.1 million in emergency humanitarian assistance and sent a rapid response coordinator.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU was “supporting Colombia wherever possible”. The bloc has also activated its Copernicus satellite service to assist rescue teams.
Spain said on August 11 it had been unable to trace 164 of its nationals in Colombia, though it recorded no Spanish dead or injured.