{"id":220284,"date":"2026-08-12T05:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/more-than-160-people-killed-in-colombias-strongest-earthquake-in-years-nbc-news\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T05:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T05:03:16","slug":"more-than-160-people-killed-in-colombias-strongest-earthquake-in-years-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/more-than-160-people-killed-in-colombias-strongest-earthquake-in-years-nbc-news\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 160 people killed in Colombia\u2019s strongest earthquake in years – NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

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At least 169 people were killed Monday in a 7.4-magnitude earthquake<\/a> that shook western Colombia, collapsing hospitals, schools and other buildings and leaving people trapped under the rubble.
The worst-hit cities include Pereira, Cali, Quibd\u00f3, Manizales and Armenia, all of which remain under \u201cred alert,\u201d the nation\u2019s highest-level disaster threat level, according to Colombia\u2019s nonprofit Association of Capital Cities, which provided the death toll.
Seven airports have suspended operations, and hospitals, roads, transportation, aqueducts, energy and telecommunications have been disrupted in the areas hardest hit, it said.
Colombia\u2019s newly inaugurated president<\/a>, Abelardo De La Espriella, said in a national briefing that 700 people were injured in the temblor and an estimated 5,000 homes were damaged or destroyed.
Earlier in the day, he declared a national disaster to allow for the mobilization and coordination of emergency efforts.
Speaking from the Unified Command Center he had ordered into existence <\/a>earlier in the day, De La Espriella said 188 people were missing, three hospitals had collapsed, and 18 other hospitals had been affected. Thirty-nine schools were also affected, he said.
Elected officials have reported people trapped inside collapsed buildings and serious structural damage throughout the quake-hit region.
The quake\u2019s epicenter was reported in the municipality of San Jos\u00e9 del Palmar in the department \u200bof Choc\u00f3. Colombia\u2019s Geological Service said it was the country\u2019s strongest earthquake this century, Reuters reported.
In Valle del Cauca, about 254 miles south of Choc\u00f3, Gov. Dilian Francisca Toro said<\/a> \u201cthe situation is serious.\u201d
She reported the deaths of 27 people across Valle del Cauca,<\/a> including three children<\/a>. Speaking from the University Hospital of the Valley, Toro said the facility suffered \u201cstructural collapses\u201d and that rescue and evacuation operations were completed Monday.
Video from the location verified by NBC News shows medical staff in white tending to infants in hospital bassinets outdoors. At least one medical professional was shown holding a baby in her arms.
In Choc\u00f3, Gov. Nubia Carolina C\u00f3rdoba-Curi said on social media that injuries and serious damage to buildings had been reported in the capital city of Quibd\u00f3, about 188 miles northwest of the reported epicenter.
\u201cWe are already conducting a damage assessment to issue the first official report,\u201d C\u00f3rdoba-Curi wrote on X in Spanish.
As of Monday night, C\u00f3rdoba-Curi reported 13 deaths <\/a>in Choc\u00f3. Earlier, she said 84 people had been injured.
In Pereira, a city in Colombia\u2019s coffee-growing region, Mayor Mauricio Salazar said 18 people had died. In nearby Manizales, Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas \u200bsaid two people were killed.
Alejandro Eder, the mayor of Cali, said<\/a> that at least 20 buildings had collapsed in the city and some had \u201cpeople trapped inside.\u201d Emergency response teams have set up tents in the area to coordinate rescue efforts, Eder added<\/a>.
Sunday was the beginning of a weeklong festival celebrating the region\u2019s Afro-Pacific culture, which brings hundreds of thousands of tourists to Cali, Colombia\u2019s third-largest city.
Cali resident Luis Angel Sarria told NBC News he strongly felt the earthquake there.
\u201cThere are many damaged buildings, collapsed buildings, people trapped and fatalities; the quake felt here was very severe,\u201d Sarria, a taxi driver, said in Spanish. \u201cWhat has happened here in my country has been very hard and very sad.\u201d
While Sarria and his immediate family are safe, he said, \u201cWe are saddened by the loss of life.\u201d
In Cali, rescue teams and volunteers began clearing rubble as they searched for survivors trapped beneath some of the collapsed buildings.
In Jamund\u00ed, about 15 miles south of Cali, Maria Alejandra Soto Zea was inside her apartment with her 2-year-old son when she felt the earthquake. Its intensity grew quickly, she said, leaving her unable to quickly evacuate her home.
As she sought the exit, Soto Zea said, the shaking was so intense that she made it only to the kitchen. There, she held on to the kitchen counter with all her strength while also carrying her toddler, she told NBC News in Spanish.
\u201cRight now, I have back pain from the stress of the moment, from shouting, from gripping the counter so tightly and from the anguish of thinking I wouldn\u2019t be able to get out of here with my son,\u201d Soto Zea said.
When the trembling subsided, the 27-year-old mother took the stairs seven stories down with her young child in her arms and evacuated the building. Worried about aftershocks,<\/a> she began packing a few bags on Monday afternoon to stay with relatives elsewhere.
The Trump administration is committing $15.5 million to Colombia for emergency shelter, food, protection and other needs, the State Department said Monday on X<\/a>.
It said the U.S. is ready to support De La Espriella and his government as they assess the country\u2019s needs. \u201cWe are united in prayer with the Colombian people,\u201d the State Department said.
The International Rescue Committee, a global nonprofit group focused on providing aid during humanitarian crises, said in a statement that its staff near Choc\u00f3 was reporting damage to hospitals and clinics.
\u201cLocal communities were already facing armed conflict and high levels of poverty long before the ground began to shake. Choc\u00f3, at the epicenter of the quake, is the poorest region in the country,\u201d said Nicole Kast, the organization\u2019s director for Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. \u201cWe are deeply concerned that today\u2019s natural disaster will make the needs on the ground even steeper as people lose access to health care and other essential services.\u201d
According to Colombia\u2019s civil aviation authority<\/a>, airports in Cali, Pereira, Manizales, Quibd\u00f3, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura were affected in some way by the temblor, including by electricity outages. Flights at these airports have been suspended \u201cpending an assessment of structural damage to the facilities,\u201d it said.
Later, it said Alfonso Bonilla Arag\u00f3n International Airport between Palmira and Cali was operational following restoration of electricity.
Jos\u00e9 Gallegos was inside the airport in Pereira when the earthquake hit. In videos posted to his Instagram account<\/a>, Gallegos can be seen hiding underneath a table as plumes of dust burst in the air and parts of the ceiling crashed into the ground.
\u201cEverything fell apart in a second,\u201d Gallegos, an influencer, told Noticias Telemundo Ahora<\/a> in Spanish. He was recording a live video when disaster struck.
Gallegos described seeing walls collapsing, trapping people underneath. \u201cAt that moment, I thought I was going to die,\u201d he said.
Halley Sherwood, who lives in the city of Armenia along with her husband, said in a phone interview that some buildings collapsed and many more appear to have intense damage.
Water and Wi-Fi were cut off before returning within a few hours, she said.
\u201cAs of right now everyone is outside their homes waiting,\u201d Sherwood said. \u201cWe were told there could be aftershocks.\u201d
The damage in Armenia, part of the country\u2019s coffee-growing region, has brought back painful memories for residents of a 6.1-magnitude earthquake<\/a> that rocked the area in 1999, causing nearly 1,200 deaths and leaving an estimated 250,000 homeless, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
\u201cMy husband and his family are all shook up, because last time it was really bad,\u201d Sherwood said.
Less than an hour after the initial earthquake, an aftershock measured at magnitude 5.0 struck about 10 miles west of San Jos\u00e9 del Palmar, according to the USGS. It was not immediately clear whether it caused damage or hampered rescue efforts.
The earthquake follows two back-to-back 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela<\/a> in late June that killed more than 6,000 people.
Soto Zea said that surviving Monday\u2019s earthquake in Colombia after witnessing the devastation left behind in nearby Venezuela has left her feeling very nervous.
\u201cIt\u2019s very overwhelming,\u201d she said. \u201cThis shakes up your life because it leaves you thinking about how fragile life is.\u201d
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC<\/p>\n

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news AlertsThere are no new alerts at this timeAt least 169 people were killed Monday in a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that shook western Colombia, collapsing hospitals, schools and other buildings and leaving people trapped under the rubble.The worst-hit cities include Pereira, Cali, Quibd\u00f3, Manizales and Armenia, all of which remain under \u201cred alert,\u201d the nation\u2019s highest-level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":220285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}