It was 7:34 in the morning on August 10 when the ground moved in Cali. The 7.4-magnitude earthquake, with its epicenter near San José del Palmar, in Chocó, left cracks in at least 18 health centers in the region.
At one of the city’s hospitals, patients were trapped under rubble in the pediatric area, and the risk of collapse forced the evacuation of all inpatients, including newborns. The Cali Mayor’s Office, led by Mayor Alejandro Eder, declared a hospital red alert.
Amid that chaos, healthcare staff did not stop. They took stretchers, incubators, and equipment out to the rural area and continued providing care amid dust and sirens, while Governor Dilian Francisca Toro confirmed 27 deaths in Valle del Cauca and more than 20 collapsed structures in Cali alone.
A curfew was activated that same night, but the city had already seen what a medical team can do when it has nowhere to work, only the means to do so.