By admin 
Colombia declared a nationwide natural disaster Monday after a powerful magnitude 7.4 earthquake killed at least 71 people and caused widespread damage across several departments, authorities said.
Read more OnlyFans model gets prison for stabbing boyfriend in luxury Miami high-rise
The latest government toll put the number of deaths at 40 in Risaralda, 27 in Valle del Cauca and four in Chocó, the western department where the earthquake’s epicenter was located. Officials cautioned that the figures were still being updated as emergency teams worked with local authorities in affected areas.
President Abelardo de la Espriella announced the disaster declaration during a meeting of the government’s unified command post and ordered authorities, including the country’s military leadership, to mobilize the financial and other resources necessary to respond to the emergency.
Rescue teams, including personnel dispatched from Bogotá, were being sent to the hardest-hit areas as authorities continued assessing casualties and damage. The earthquake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time and was felt across much of Colombia and as far away as Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela.
Some of the most serious damage was reported in Pereira and other parts of Colombia’s coffee-growing region, as well as in Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca, where at least 30 buildings collapsed, according to Mayor Alejandro Eder.
Colombia’s civil aviation authority, Aerocivil, said the earthquake also damaged airports in Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura. Flights at all six airports were suspended while authorities evaluated possible structural damage.
“For safety reasons, air operations at these terminals remain suspended until structural damage to the infrastructure can be assessed,” Aerocivil said in a statement.
The airports in Pereira, Manizales and Armenia serve Colombia’s central coffee-growing region, one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake. Quibdó’s airport is the principal airport in Chocó, the western department where the earthquake’s epicenter was located near the remote municipality of San José del Palmar.
The airports in Cartago and Buenaventura, meanwhile, are in Valle del Cauca, where Cali emerged as another of the cities suffering extensive damage.
The earthquake struck at a depth of about 107 kilometers, or 66 miles, with its epicenter about 5 kilometers east of San José del Palmar, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The powerful shaking was felt in Bogotá and cities across a broad swath of the country, but early reports indicated significantly heavier damage in Cali, Pereira and other parts of western and central Colombia.
In Cali, local television showed damaged buildings, fallen walls and debris covering vehicles in the city center. A reporter broadcasting from the city said authorities had closed streets around heavily affected areas, including near Plaza de Caicedo, as emergency crews assessed structural damage.
Several buildings were cracked, while bricks and pieces of walls had fallen onto streets and vehicles, according to the broadcast. Emergency personnel were treating people for injuries, although authorities had not yet released an official casualty count for the city.
Hospitals were also affected. Patients were evacuated from some medical facilities after damage was reported, including at Hospital Universitario del Valle and Clínica Imbanaco, according to local reports. Emergency services remained operational despite the evacuations.
Ambulances and firefighters were deployed across Cali as officials inspected damaged areas.
Read more Traveling food truck festival promises more than 40 vendors at Midlands, SC stop
Residents described an intense and prolonged shaking that triggered alarms and forced widespread evacuations. Some elderly residents were treated by first responders after becoming distressed during the earthquake.
Authorities urged residents to rely on official information and avoid spreading unconfirmed reports while damage assessments continued.
There were also reports of serious damage in Manizales, a city in Colombia’s mountainous coffee-growing region. Caracol Radio reported that the dome of the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica suffered severe damage and was destroyed during the shaking.
In Bogotá, roughly 240 kilometers east of the epicenter, alarms sounded throughout the capital and thousands of people evacuated buildings as a precaution.
Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galán said there were no initial reports of major damage in the capital.
“At this time there are no reports of impacts or structural damage, only some cracks in buildings,” Galán said in a post on X.
Despite the earthquake’s epicenter being in western Colombia near the Pacific region, authorities said there was no tsunami threat.
Colombia’s National Unit for Disaster Risk Management, citing information from the country’s maritime authority, DIMAR, said the earthquake did not pose a tsunami threat to Colombia’s Pacific coast.
The total extent of the damage remained unclear Monday as emergency officials gathered information from municipalities across western and central Colombia.
Early images from Cali and the coffee-growing region showed damaged facades, fallen masonry and residents gathered outside buildings while authorities inspected structures.
Aerocivil said it was maintaining continuous monitoring of conditions at the affected airports and urged travelers to follow official channels and information from their airlines because flight schedules could be disrupted.
Colombia lies along the seismically active Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where several tectonic plates converge, and earthquakes are relatively common. Monday’s magnitude 7.4 event, however, was powerful enough to be felt across much of the country and beyond its borders.
Authorities warned residents to remain alert for possible aftershocks as emergency teams continued assessing damage throughout the affected region.
Read more One person killed in crash that left two others hospitalized, SC cops say
This story was complemented with El Nuevo Herald wire services.