Colombia earthquake survivors are reliving a nightmare from 1999: “You feel a sense of powerlessness”

Jahir Rodríguez knew what was happening when he saw thick, dark clouds forming near his home in western Colombia on Monday morning. Parts of his dear Pereira were crumbling. 

The urban planner and former professor also knows what happens next after a powerful earthquake devastates whole communities. He sprang into action after a deadly 1999 quake in Armenia, about 30 miles away from his current home, that killed around 1,200 people. He did so again three days ago when a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same region, killing at least 265 people and trapping hundreds under debris across several states. 

“You feel a sense of powerlessness,” Rodríguez said as he recalled seeing glass shattering and water seeping through the cracked and fallen walls of shaken buildings.

“You will be here for years”

Rodríguez, who is 68 and retired, learned how to respond to earthquakes after the disaster in Colombia’s coffee region at the turn of the century. He gained valuable insights from a delegation of Japanese responders who had faced a deadly quake in Osaka in 1995. 

“It is a mistake to think that you will be here for days or months,” Rodríguez said they told him. “You will be here for years.” 

Rodríguez, who also assisted after a major earthquake in Talca, Chile, in 2010, is referring to the encampments forming in parks across the city, a common sight after people lose their homes to natural disasters. 

In Colombia, the new government, which took over just days before the quake, is helping set up the encampments, Rodríguez said. But that tactic may be shortsighted, he said, since people will remain displaced for years and need permanent living quarters now. He also says the primary concern right now is more dire.

“The first is to count people, the second is to organize them where they will be placed, and the third is the reconstruction plans,” he said. 

Getting people to leave their uninhabitable homes is hard, Rodríguez said. He spent the day after Monday’s earthquake visiting with a friend and fellow urban planner whose apartment building toppled onto others. When he arrived, Rodríguez said, his friend would not move from the site out of fear that vandals would enter the building — something that was more prevalent after the 1999 quake.

“People are here in front of the sidewalk, watching their house,” Rodríguez said with immense sadness. 

He’s seeing people making meals on the side of the road, and says it’s hardest to think about what will come next for them.

“Days and days and days, nights and nights and nights, months and months and months in a shelter waiting to be helped,” he said.

A blueprint for earthquake recovery

Everardo Murillo created a blueprint for long-term recovery efforts following the 1999 earthquake. Colombia’s then-president, Andrés Pastrana, tasked him with creating the fund and organization to allocate money for people who lost their homes and businesses. 

Since then, he’s been consulting for other governments at the behest of organizations such as the World Bank, and he recently visited Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes devastated parts of the country. In La Guaira, the hardest-hit city, he met with the governor and other local heads, businesspeople and members of the community to help with their recovery. 

All those groups are vital to solve what Murillo calls the “social engineering” issue after disasters. 

“People lose the route of their life. It’s the hardest thing for a human being,” he said. “How do I help that family who lost everything, whose home collapsed, who lost children, and also lost their belongings inside and is now on the street?”

Murillo said in the first phase of a disaster, responders must act fast. They need food, shelter and quick monetary help, along with temporary schooling for children. Then comes longer-term assistance like government handouts and loans.

He likes to hire those affected directly to work on recovery efforts. 

“The first thing that emerges from within a disaster victim when something like that happens is a new kind of leadership,” Murillo said. “Natural leaders emerge — people who step up.”

Murillo said solidarity is something that can’t be explained and helps responders learn from victims. He likes to pair up those who are feeling stuck and depressed about the catastrophe with those who are invigorated. 

Lessons learned in a disaster’s aftermath

Much of the response depends on how the governments react. Murillo, who also consulted in Haiti after its deadly 2010 earthquake, says Colombia benefits from established models and response systems.

He says that in Haiti, local leaders and victims didn’t understand some things he took for granted — like the need for an ID card, documentation for their home or other basic information. 

“There are a number of problems in the social realms that one only discovers by going there and seeing for oneself,” Murillo said. 

Murillo said Colombia got out of this disaster more easily than others. He compares the dozens of fallen buildings this week to the hundreds that toppled in Venezuela. 

Many structures in the area where the earthquake struck this week were built to withstand the seismic rocking that destroyed entire neighborhoods in 1999. 

But even those whose homes remain are going to be affected, Murillo said. Some people may have lost businesses and don’t have the resources to bring them back, and communities may lack the infrastructure to recover.

That’s part of the challenge for responders. There is a mix of people and problems to address all at once.

Jahir Rodríguez’s sister, 65-year-old Liliana Rodríguez, lost her apartment in Monday’s earthquake. Looking into her eyes, he said he sees hopelessness, pain and uncertainty, a look he knows well.

“They are just recovering from the earthquake,” Rodríguez said. “They have not yet thought about tomorrow’s story.” 

He’s worried about what survivors will face next, like living in cramped shelters and navigating the financial logistics of finding a new home or job — all while grieving what they lost.