Rescue, Restoration After Colombian Quake

by Kevin Burton

   A young boy has his mother back. From the jaws of tragic loss, comes delicious, unspeakable joy.

   A 7.4 magnitude earthquake hit Colombia Aug. 10. Since then we’ve read stories with updates on the death toll, the number of people missing and damage to buildings. But one story grabbed me and will not let me go. It was written by BBC reporter Vanessa Buschschlüter.

   “A 32-year-old woman, who had been trapped under rubble for 36 hours following the 7.4-magnitude quake which shook western Colombia, has been rescued alive.”

   “Daniela Largo was pulled from beneath a collapsed building in the city of Pereira after a 10-hour-long rescue operation. Firefighters finally managed to reach her via a tunnel they dug below four concrete slabs under which she had been buried,” Buschschlüter wrote.

   “Largo’s mother told AFP news agency that a local resident had heard her daughter cry out for help from beneath the rubble. Once emergency workers had arrived at the site, they were able to locate Largo with the help of a small camera.”

   “However, her rescue was complicated by the fact that four heavy concrete slabs were blocking the way. Local firefighters aided by colleagues deployed from the capital, Bogotá, and the disaster response team of the national police force had to dig two tunnels to reach her,” Buschschlüter, wrote.

   “Through one opening, dug from above, they were able to provide Largo with oxygen. But it was only through a second tunnel, dug from below, that they were able to free her.”

   Colombian President Abelardo De la Espriella celebrated her rescue on social media, describing it as “news which fills us with hope.”

   Largo’s mother said that “at home, her 12-year-old son is waiting for her.”

    I hear this story and think of that boy. He was doubtless traumatized by a huge natural disaster. His mother is missing and as the hours pass by, his thoughts probably turn toward the worst.

  Then, by the grace of God and through the efforts of disaster response teams and plain old regular citizens who cared, rescue and restoration.

   Mother and child reunion!

   If you read Page 7 you probably know my mother died in May. Since then most everything I have read is filtered through that context.

   Certainly in an earthquake, your whole life can change, or end, in a moment.  But you don’t need to go through an earthquake for that to be true.

   This is for all of us, something to ponder, and thereby, perhaps change some of our daily priorities.

    Some other things bring this story home to me. One of the drivers with my Sedgwick County ride service is from Colombia. I practiced my Spanish with her and talked with her about soccer when Columbia made the finals of the Copa America in 2024.

   I don’t know her immigration status, but I haven’t seen her in a while. It makes me wonder if the nazis who are running/ruining this country have gotten to her.

   And I never asked her what city in Colombia she is from. So I don’t know if she is from Pereira, or some other town in Western Colombia where the quake hit. 

   But I know her mother is down there, somewhere.

   The quake struck at 7:34 am local time on Aug. 10. It had its epicenter near the village of San José del Palmar, in Chocó province, but could be felt across a vast area, according to the BBC. Seismometers nearest the epicenter registered shaking lasting between 90 seconds and two minutes. There have been more than 100 aftershocks since.

   Pereira is a city in Colombia’s coffee-growing region. At least 92 buildings collapsed there, according to the Association of Colombian Capital Cities (Asocapitales).