CALI, Colombia — In a tense, reverent moment that captured the fragile mix of hope and grief gripping this quake-battered South American nation, search and rescue workers stood amid piles of crumbled concrete Thursday, lifting their arms and clenching their fists to demand total silence. They strained to catch even the faintest sound of life trapped beneath the wreckage left by a powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake that has already claimed at least 265 lives and left hundreds unaccounted for. Thursday marked the third full day since the tremor shook the country on Monday, pushing search efforts into what emergency responders call the critical final window for pulling trapped people out alive.
Aid experts widely recognize the 48 to 72 hours immediately following a major seismic event as the golden window for successful survivor rescue, though outcomes can stretch far beyond that timeframe if trapped people have access to clean water and small amounts of food. For the teams digging through rubble in Cali — one of the hardest-hit urban centers, alongside Pereira, Manizales and Quibdó — that narrow timeline has made every minute of work urgent.
Daiana Rojas, a 25-year-old volunteer rescuer who is herself a Cali resident, told the Associated Press that faint sounds had been detected at one search site since 2:30 a.m. Thursday, keeping optimism alive. “There might be two more people alive here, and I’m hopeful,” she said. “We have been hearing sounds since 2:30 a.m., so our hope remains.”
Rojas and her own family escaped the earthquake unharmed, but the experience of living through the most powerful quake to hit Colombia this century left a deep mark. She recalled the overwhelming terror when the ground began to shake: “I thought that was going to be my last moment alive.” Now, walking through the wreckage of her hometown, she said, “Seeing this situation in my city breaks my heart.” She chose to set aside her own shock to join volunteer rescue efforts, working side-by-side with professional teams to clear debris.
Cali Mayor Alejandro Edr warned reporters Wednesday that the next 20 hours would make or break the push to find any remaining survivors. “The next 20 hours are the most critical to find and rescue people alive,” he said, confirming that search teams have continued to pick up faint signs of life beneath fallen structures across the city.
The disaster has become an early critical test for Colombia’s newly inaugurated president Abelardo de la Espriella and his administration, which has scrambled to mobilize response resources while independent aid organizations work to reach the most severely damaged communities. Reporting from the government has shown a discrepancy in missing person numbers: de la Espriella said Wednesday that nearly 500 people were registered as missing, but independent civilian-run databases tracking the missing list more than 4,200 unaccounted-for people. Overall, the president confirmed that more than 25,800 families across the affected region have been impacted by the quake, many left homeless after their homes collapsed.
In her days of digging through rubble, Rojas has already witnessed two extraordinary moments of survival: she helped pull two people out alive from the debris, and she has also helped recover the remains of those who did not survive. Speaking of the survivors she has helped rescue, she said, “They are not a relative or a friend of mine, but it feels as they were.” She described the shared tension and joy that ripples through search sites across the city: whenever rescuers call for silence to listen for signs of life, bystanders and team members alike freeze, holding their breath to avoid making even the smallest sound. When a sign of life is confirmed, that tension bursts into applause as teams race to reach the trapped person before conditions worsen.
This report included contributions from journalists Suarez, reporting out of Bogota, Colombia, and Batschke, reporting from Santiago, Chile.