A City Watches a Building Fall
A multi-story structure on Avenida Santander in Manizales crumpled into a cloud of dust directly across from the Catholic University of Manizales on Monday morning, one of roughly ten buildings that came down entirely in the city, according to local outlet El Colombiano. Footage taken as the ground shook just before 7:34 a.m. shows the building buckling and sliding into the street within seconds, while parked cars nearby rocked side to side.
The wreckage was later identified by local media as the Santo Domingo building. Manizales Mayor Jorge Eduardo Rojas said in a video posted to social media that more than a dozen buildings and over 20 homes were partially or completely destroyed across the city, with crews still tallying partial collapses hours later.
A 7.4 earthquake has struck Colombia, with significant damage reported. pic.twitter.com/45WC9PJDz0
— Pop Base (@PopBase) August 10, 2026
Where the Quake Struck
Colombia's Geological Service traced the epicenter to a spot near San José del Palmar in Chocó department and put the depth at 96 kilometers underground; the U.S. Geological Survey placed it slightly deeper, at 107 kilometers (66 miles). Initial readings from the Colombian agency undersold the quake's power — an early estimate of 6.6 was later revised up to 7.4 to match the USGS figure. The shaking radiated through nine departments and all 32 provincial capitals, reaching as far as Bogotá, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela's border region. The USGS estimated roughly 34 million people felt some degree of shaking and issued an Orange Alert, its second-highest warning tier, flagging a serious likelihood of major casualties.
Cathedral Tower Comes Down
In the historic center, one of the two bell towers on Manizales' neo-Gothic cathedral snapped off and crashed onto the nave — an image that spread nearly as fast as the Avenida Santander footage, CBS News reported. Nearby, the departmental government building and the regional Palacio de Justicia sustained damage, and cracked columns and debris were reported in the El Cable district.
Not every city fared the same. In Medellín, no full building collapses were reported and the metro was suspended only as a precaution while inspectors checked the tracks, Al Jazeera reported. Bogotá saw cracked walls and panicked evacuations but no serious structural failures, according to its mayor.
Death Toll Climbs Sharply
Early Monday, local officials in Pereira and Manizales put the combined toll at roughly 20 to 22. That number has since jumped: the latest wire count puts nationwide deaths at at least 47, after Valle del Cauca department — home to Cali — reported 27 fatalities, including at least three children. Pereira's toll held at 18, and Manizales' at two, though an earlier Reuters dispatch had put the Manizales figure at three; the discrepancy hadn't been resolved as of Monday afternoon.
In Cali, more than two dozen buildings collapsed and trapped residents, Reuters reported, with rescuers pulling an elderly woman and a young girl out alive by evening. "My entire house shook. I've never lived through such a powerful earthquake," Cali taxi driver Jorge Moncayo told the Associated Press, describing plumes of dust rising over the skyline from his home in the hills above the city. One additional death was confirmed in the Pacific port city of Buenaventura, where a mayor said a building collapse trapped several people.
A President Three Days Into the Job
Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn in as Colombia's president the previous Friday, August 7, in an unprecedented ceremony held in Cali rather than Bogotá — not, as initial framing of this story suggested, on the morning of the earthquake itself. On Monday, with the disaster unfolding just days into his term, he established a Unified Command Post at the national disaster agency's headquarters to direct the federal response. "You are not alone. The state is present and taking action," he said in remarks carried by multiple outlets.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was tracking developments and stands ready to support the people of Colombia. Emergency operations centers were activated in Chocó and several coffee-region cities as damage assessments continued into the evening.
Airports Grounded as Aftershocks Continue
Civil aviation regulators grounded flights at six airports — Pereira, Manizales, Quibdó, Armenia, Cartago and Buenaventura — for structural inspections after part of the roof at Pereira's Matecaña terminal came down. The USGS recorded a magnitude 5.0 aftershock within the first hour; a separate wire report later cited a smaller, 3.8-magnitude tremor in the same window, and it remains unclear whether these refer to the same event. The U.S. tsunami warning system ruled out any wave threat. Rescue crews were expected to keep working through the night, with officials cautioning that the toll could rise further once inspectors reach buildings still deemed too unstable to enter.
A Region Still Recovering From June
Monday's quake lands in a part of the world already reeling. Twin earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 struck neighboring Venezuela on June 24, killing more than 5,000 people and leveling entire neighborhoods along the coast near Caracas. Colombia's own coffee region has scar tissue from disaster before: a shallower magnitude 6.2 quake near Armenia in 1999 killed more than 1,100 people and destroyed much of that city.
Editor's note: Casualty figures remained fluid through Monday evening and are likely to keep changing as rescue crews reach areas that were previously inaccessible. This piece reflects the most recent wire counts available at time of publication.
