Bogotá, Aug 10 (EFE).- Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella confirmed that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck most of the country on Monday, killed 111 people and caused widespread destruction across at least five departments.
»As of 12:30, we have 111 dead, 87 injured, 1,575 homes damaged, 37 completely destroyed, 61 collapsed buildings, and damage to 18 health centers and 52 schools,» De la Espriella stated in Bogotá during his first public address after the quake, in which he declared a «national disaster.»
The president added that the tremor affected 18 highways and seven airports (Pereira, Manizales, Quibdo, Armenia, Cartago, Cali, and Buenaventura) which suffered structural damage and remain closed to commercial flights.
De la Espriella will travel in the afternoon to Quibdo, the capital of Choco and the quake’s epicenter, to oversee the emergency response personally. Other cabinet members will deploy to the Valle del Cauca department and the Coffee Axis, the regions hardest hit by the seismic event..
«The immediate priority is the rescue of those trapped under the rubble,» said the president, who is only in his third day of office after being inaugurated last Friday, August 7.
The earthquake struck at 7:34 a.m. local time on Monday. Its epicenter was in the town of San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, at a depth of 82 kilometers, according to the Colombian Geological Service (SGC). EFE
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