In the wake of a devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake that tore through southwestern Colombia, the hard-hit city of Cali — the nation’s third most populated urban center — has been left in ruins. Local residents are now walking through piles of crumbled concrete and twisted metal, their hearts heavy with worry as they comb through the wreckage searching for any trace of missing family members and friends. Emergency response teams have deployed heavy machinery and trained search crews across the city, working around the clock to pull trapped survivors from the remains of collapsed buildings, even as the death toll continues to climb in this already traumatized community. For many locals, every small sign of life, every faint signal from under the rubble, becomes a fragile beacon of hope that keeps them searching, even as the grim reality of the disaster settles across the shattered city.