8 Deaths Reported in Yesterday's Earthquake; Quake Epicenter in Villavicencio

miamimike says on May 25, 2008, 09:17:

"Sin embargo, el director de la Defensa Civil, general Duván Pineda, había manifestado que la cifra de víctimas podría llegar a 30
El Tiempo:
Esto, teniendo en cuenta que por la vía Bogotá-Villavicencio se presentaron al menos 10 derrumbes y muchos vehículos transitaban en ese momento.

Los fallecimientos se produjeron en el kilómetro 45 de la vía Bogotá-Villavicencio, en cercanías a Quetame."

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juancegomez says on May 25, 2008, 09:38:

Sad though...whatever deaths still remain to be counted.

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sanandressi says on May 25, 2008, 10:59:

Villavicencio, at least from a few pictures I have seen, is not aa "town"" but a city of at least 100,000 people if not more.

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slguy says on May 25, 2008, 11:13:

kat? rj? heard from your families? everything ok?

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Robert Jorge says on May 25, 2008, 11:16:

Villavicencio is the department capital of Meta. It is 350,000 to 380,000 people, depending on what source you look at.

According to Caracol about 30 minutes ago, Guayabetal was the one of the most effected pueblos. It is on the route that connects Bogota to Villavicencio. The news also said the death count is up to 15, most, if not all victims were in their cars and got hit by falling rocks coming down the side of the mountains. (I know this repeats what was said above)

On a positive note, it looks like the military and other relief agencies have been quick to respond, and have already set up shelters, have bottled water and food available to the people left homeless.

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 25, 2008, 11:18:

Thanks slguy, yes my family is alright Thanks god

RJ the most affected town was Pto Quetame

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Robert Jorge says on May 25, 2008, 11:38:

Yep, Caracol said that town as well as Guayabetal. They had pictures and video of both towns.

I just saw that I said: "Guayabetal was the one of the most effected pueblos"

I miss typed, and should have written: "Guaybetal was one of the most effected pueblos" instead of 'the one of the' .... Anyway:

BEWARE of gold diggers.

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CatGirl says on May 25, 2008, 14:15:

According to my local news last night BTW - this earthquake occured approx 1220 Paciifc Time. Funny how they only commented that it was the Capital of Colombia that got a jolt and showed a few frames of nervous people on cell phones.

Being in Earthquake country - maybe its different. We get so many - like rain storms, jaja. So they don;t cover much in the news about it. I wonder if the older infrastructures are earthquake safe? What about the newer ones? Is it taken into consideration BTW?

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Colombiareports.com says on May 25, 2008, 17:18:

Photos from the worst hit earthquake area:
http://colombiareports.com/2008/05/25/damage-done-by-the-earthquake-ph...

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miamimike says on May 25, 2008, 21:05:

Judging from the looks of those Buildings and streets, that 'Quake really did some damage!

CG-- the new Commercial Bldgs are supposed to be hardened to resist earthquakes, not sure of the specs and one would suppose new Residental construction would have protection also. Maybe someone familiar with Col Bldg Codes will coment.

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billyb says on May 25, 2008, 21:27:

Kat, glad to hear you family is ok.

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 26, 2008, 04:50:

thnks Bill.

the road still close, i wouldn't like to travel on that road at the moment, it needs to be check properly for more lose rocks on the mountains, specially that that road it's not very stable.

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 26, 2008, 04:52:

And 5 members of this family die when a rock fell on their car... so sad :(

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miamimike says on May 26, 2008, 11:11:

Kat-I'm happy you weren't in that Truck! :>)

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Lily03 says on May 26, 2008, 21:13:

KAT! Thank God nothing happened to your family. I was very nervous, considering my mom traveled to Guamal on Thursday.
She is there for a couple of days and I told her that she better fly over to Bogota.. This was very scary indeed.

Esperemos que no sigan pasando estos sismos!

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christobeldawg says on May 26, 2008, 22:39:

I was in Crepes and Waffles, and thought, at first, that it was a bomb, as that is what it felt like, and how everyone reacted. Everything shook for about 20-30 seconds, as I tried to recall my grade school drills on wtf to do. There were a couple of minor after shocks, but after about 30 minutes, all returned to somewhat normal.

admittedly, arriving can feel great too

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kat1 (Moderator) says on May 27, 2008, 04:38:

Thanks Lily, well the road bogota/villavo is still close they said it will open tomorrow, as you might know when the road Bogota/Villavicencio is close everybody have to take the old road but i am not sure is this one is ok because the old road goes through El Calvario were the epicenter was.

If you take the old road it will take 7 to 8 hours from Bogotá to get to Villavicencio instead of the 2 hours if you take the new road

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