Pereira earthquake survivors in daily-rental shelters remain uncounted
After Pereira’s mayor’s office said not everyone sheltering in La Libertad Park was earthquake-affected, volunteers say residents of cheap daily rooms remain largely uncounted and reliant on volunteers.
- The Aug. 10 earthquake was magnitude 7.4 and lasted 90 seconds.
- It killed 314 people across Colombia, including 111 in Pereira.
- Volunteers estimate about 400 people are sheltering in La Libertad Park.
- The Pereira Mayor’s Office has no estimate of how many pay-by-the-day residents were affected.
- Volunteer doctors recorded tuberculosis and other illnesses at the unofficial shelter.
Pereira’s mayor’s office announced that not everyone staying in La Libertad Park had been affected by the Aug. 10 earthquake, as the Ombudsman’s Office, risk-management agency DIGER and family welfare institute ICBF moved to identify residents and transfer them to official shelters.
Two weeks after the quake, those institutions arrived at the park; volunteers and survivors said they had received no official assistance until then.
The park, between 12th and 14th Streets in downtown Pereira, has become an unofficial shelter for about 400 people, volunteers estimate. Many slept in pay-by-the-day residences, or residencias, where rooms cost about COP 15,000 to COP 18,000 (USD 5 to USD 6) a day. The Pereira Mayor’s Office has no estimate of how many of those residents were affected.
The 7.4-magnitude, 90-second earthquake killed 314 people across Colombia, including 111 in Pereira. Sixty-six buildings collapsed in Pereira, and about 600 were preliminarily identified as at risk of collapse. In one collapsed boarding house, volunteers and official rescuers recovered 17 bodies two days after the quake.
Laura, who lived with her husband and two daughters in a damaged three-floor boarding house on 14th Street, said she ran 15 minutes to find her daughters while buildings collapsed around her. Félix, a coffee picker who paid COP 15,000 a day for a room, said his suitcase was buried and he slept on the ground in the park.
“Nobody came to find out how many people were sleeping in the affected residences, how many people now have nowhere to live, or how many were trapped beneath the rubble,” said Edward Molina, a local volunteer. “They are invisible to the government and society.”
Volunteer doctors recorded respiratory illnesses, including tuberculosis, and digestive illnesses among children, citing crowded tents, lack of bathrooms and drinking water. They see up to 30 patients a day.
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