Colombia's main evangelical umbrella organization is working to reach affiliated churches across several regions following a magnitude 7.4 earthquake that struck the country Monday, as reports emerge of structural damage, evacuations and families left without shelter.
The Evangelical Confederation of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym CEDECOL, said it has been unable to establish contact with congregations in two of the hardest-hit areas — the Coffee-Growing Region, known locally as the Eje Cafetero, and the Pacific department of Chocó — according to Andrea Pinto, an assistant to CEDECOL's directorate.
"We are making our way through the area, calling to find out how our affiliates, the churches, have been affected, what has happened," Pinto told the Spanish-language edition of Christian Daily International. "We have no communication with the Eje Cafetero or with Quibdó."
The quake struck the morning of Aug. 10 and was felt across large parts of the country, including the cities of Cali, Manizales and Medellín. Among the early reports reaching CEDECOL were accounts of cracked buildings, forced evacuations and displacement camps being set up in the Eje Cafetero.
"They had to evacuate buildings and cannot return to them because they are at risk," Pinto said. She added that some families lost their belongings in the disaster.
In Medellín, Pastor Marcelo Ferreri of the Church of the Brethren said his family and congregation were unharmed, but described an earthquake unlike any he had experienced in a city accustomed to occasional seismic activity.
"Here you get used to it — every so often there's a tremor, but sometimes you barely even notice it," Ferreri told Christian Daily International. What set Monday's quake apart, he said, was its duration — which he estimated at close to two minutes. "This one lasted a long, long, long time."
Ferreri said the structures in his part of the city held up well and that initial contact with congregation members through WhatsApp groups indicated most were safe. "The report I have received is that the majority are all fine," he said.
His account of other regions was more somber. The Eje Cafetero, he said, bore the brunt of the disaster. "There are buildings, there are collapsed houses, and most of the deaths are from there," he recounted.
Ferreri said the experience had deepened his congregation's faith. "This leads us to trust more in the Lord, to hold on to Him more tightly," he said.
In Tuluá, Valle del Cauca, Brahian Hernández, commercial manager of the Christian software company Software Redil, described a traumatic morning for his family. The sound of the earthquake was what struck him most.
"The sound of the earth like a deep howl, and the force with which the trees were moving," Hernández told Christian Daily International. Part of his home's ceiling came close to falling on his mother. "She narrowly escaped having part of the ceiling fall on her head," he said, adding that she was left in severe emotional distress.
In Cali, the country's third-largest city, the quake hit around 7:30 a.m. while Angélica Balanta, a graphic designer with the children's ministry Ovejitas & Ovejitas, was at home with her daughter and an uncle.
"It started out mild and then became very strong; you could hear the earth making this terrible sound," she said. Balanta, who lives on the second floor of a building in southeastern Cali, said she and her family evacuated while the shaking continued. Her neighborhood sustained no visible cracks, she said, though damage was reported in other parts of the city, including partial wall collapses.
Authorities ordered precautionary inspections of buildings, and schools, shopping centers and stores were closed while structural assessments took place. Power outages affected much of the city before electricity was gradually restored. "Everything came to a standstill," Balanta said. "The city is, you might say, at a halt."
CEDECOL said it will continue trying to reach affiliated congregations as communications are restored across the affected regions. The organization is working to determine both the extent of church damage and where assistance may be needed, according to Pinto.
Original reporting by Diario Cristiano, Christian Daily International's Spanish edition.
