Cali (Colombia) (AFP) – Colombian earthquake survivor Ana Maria Saavedra is out of physical danger, but for her the hardest part lies ahead: starting a new life without her two triplet sisters and her parents, a relative told AFP.
Issued on: 14/08/2026 - 17:56
2 min Reading time
Their apartment building in Cali, one of the cities hit hardest by Monday's powerful 7.4-magnitude quake, collapsed into a pile of rubble.Saavedra, 23, survived after taking shelter under a table. Her family was not so lucky.Parents Jairo and Victoria died in each other's arms in a bedroom.One of her sisters was buried beneath a staircase, while the other showed no signs of life under the rubble at the end of the "golden period" of survival within 72 hours of a natural disaster, after which the chance of finding victims alive plummets."Neighbors say they began to hear Ana Maria's screams and immediately came to her aid... and took her to a clinic," said cousin Carlos Augusto Saavedra.Ana Maria underwent surgery for a pelvic fracture, added her cousin, a 49-year-old architect who, like dozens of others, has been clearing the rubble from the building where his relatives lived.
People in Cali, Colombia embrace under a sign reading 'Hugs here,' days after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of the city © Raul ARBOLEDA / AFP
