A district at the epicenter of Colombia’s powerful earthquake is dealing with structural damage and a lack of water and electricity a day after the tremor, community leader Jeison Guevara told CNN.
La Italia district, located in the mountainous municipality of San José del Palmar, hasn’t yet reported any deaths but several buildings and roads are damaged, he said.
“Some homes in the municipal center do have damage to sidewalks, internal damage,” said Guevara, a bakery owner who was with customers when the earthquake struck.
San José del Palmar, an rural agricultural town of roughly 5,900 people, is currently isolated from the rest of the country. The main road out of town to neighboring Cartago is blocked by 18 separate landslides, according to Guevara. He said there’s only one bulldozer working to clear the road at the moment, and it will take some time for more resources to reach the stricken community.
Guevara described an atmosphere of “anxiety” on Monday night because residents feared there could be an aftershock during the power outage. Today everyone is trying to gradually resume their daily activities as they wait for services to be restored.
“This morning, well, everyone is back to their work, trying to charge their phones with some generators we have here in the municipality, in the district. The community is being given the opportunity to charge, to communicate, to inform their families that we are well, thank God, technically we are fine, and we are coping with the situation, which is what’s important,” he said.