TV reporter films her home in ruins as massive earthquake rocks Colombia
TV reporter films her home in ruins as massive earthquake rocks Colombia
Lily ShanagherTue, August 11, 2026 at 12:14 PM UTC
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Rescuers search for victims in a collapsed building in the La Alameda neighbourhood of Cali - Samir Rojas/Getty Images
Credit: Instagram/@rossylemos
Rossy Lemos is one of Colombia’s most prominent television journalists.
But on Monday, she found herself at the heart of the story after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit the west of the country and destroyed her home.
“My soul hurts,” the RCN Noticias reporter said as she shared footage of her house. The roof had collapsed onto her bed. Notebooks, photo frames and computers were strewn across the carpets.
She was one of the luckier ones. More than 220 people have died after Colombia’s biggest earthquake of this century struck on Monday morning. More than 3,000 are still missing.
The epicentre was concentrated in the western Choco region, where Lemos lives. But the impact was felt as far away as Ecuador, Panama – and Venezuela, which is still reeling from earthquakes in June that left 6,000 dead.
In Colombia on Monday, many were still asleep when disaster struck at around 7.30am local time, leaving residents in their pyjamas to fumble their way out of crumbling buildings.
Terrified people burst out of universities, hospitals and homes, some falling over from the tremors and into strangers’ arms as the ground moved beneath them.
Laura Alvarez was on the eighth floor of a block of flats in Medellin, and woke up with a jolt.
She said: “I almost felt like the bones of the building were rubbing against each other. I could hear all of these other sounds.
“I walked out of my bed, into the living room, and everything was shaking. I thought: ‘I need to get the F out of here.’
“I’ve never felt that before. It’s like I couldn’t grab my keys, because my hands were so frozen. It was just this feeling of whether this building was going to collapse on me and that nobody could help me.”
Ms Alvarez added: “Thankfully I’m ok, but it was probably the most terrified I’ve ever been in my entire life.”
In the Valle del Cauca region, the city of Cali – known for its vibrant salsa music – has become the scene of disaster.
People look for survivors in the rubble of a collapsed building in Cali - JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP via Getty Images
More than 188 people are missing under the rubble. The mayor said 85 had been confirmed dead.
Nicol Debia, 24, told The Telegraph from Cali: “It was violent, the movement was incredible. I was lying down, I was in shock, I felt paralysed – my friends had to help me snap out of it and go to the stairs.”
Health centres have been overwhelmed, said Dilian Francisca Toro, Valle’s regional governor, after the University Hospital collapsed, with some patients evacuated and others trapped under the rubble.
Footage shows newborns in incubators being treated on the sunny streets, while patients in wheelchairs sit exhausted under the shade of trees.
For Abelardo de la Espriella, the president, the earthquake is a monumental challenge in his first week in office.
Known as “El Tigre” or “The Tiger”, he has been keen to be seen on the front foot after the government in Venezuela was criticised for an inadequate response to that country’s earthquakes.
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Inaugurated last Friday, the president leapt on a private jet and announced he would personally supervise recovery efforts and install emergency centres, as well as visit suffering areas.
“You are not alone. The state is present and taking action,” he said, as support came in from allies in the US, El Salvador and Ecuador, among others.
The worst of the impact was concentrated in Colombia’s mountainous coffee region, with the highest number of deaths so far, 60, in the city of Pereira.
Credit: Social Media
Angie Valero Romero, of the northern town Cucuta, told The Telegraph: “It felt like strong ocean waves. I’m scared, stressed and worried about my whole family.
“The death toll is doubling every hour. We’re still trying to find out about friends in other cities whom we haven’t been able to contact.
“My uncle lost his entire veterinary practice when it collapsed. He had lots of fish tanks, and they burst because of the earthquake.”
For a country where nearly 80 per cent of the population is Roman Catholic, there was deep symbolism in the spire of the tallest cathedral in the country falling.
Credit: Social Media
“God is punishing Colombia,” one social media user said as a cloud of dust filled the sky around the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Rosary, in Manizales.
Above Ms Lemos’s destroyed bed, a rosary remained intact, along with a message above the headboard: “God is who writes our story.”
The devastation to Ms Lemos’s home after the earthquake
As night fell, rescue operations continued. Volunteers used their mobile phone torches to illuminate the rubble as rescuers picked through breeze blocks and bricks in silence, hoping to hear any sign of life.
Amid tragedy, there have been some glimmers of hope.
In Cali, a six-month-old baby was pulled from the wreckage, to cheers and tears of elation from the rescuers.
The mother, bloodied and grey, appeared to have been shielding her child with her body.
For some, the echoes of Venezuela were much closer to home.
Winder and Dedivi Delfin, teenage brothers, lost their mother, younger brother and grandmother in the back-to-back quakes in June before they moved to Colombia, seeking a fresh start.
But having moved with their father to Cali, the 15-year-old and 17-year-old brothers again found themselves in the middle of a deadly earthquake as their home began to shake, they told The New York Times.
“Right now we’re outside the house, just sitting here,” their father said on Monday afternoon. The boys were too scared to go inside, he added.
“But we’re OK. We’re here, alive.”
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Source: “AOL Breaking”
