The mayors of Pereira (central-west) and Cali (west), Mauricio Salazar and Alejandro Eder, have announced the entry into force of curfews in both cities to prevent looting and facilitate the work of emergency teams, after the earthquake of magnitude 7.4 on the Richter scale that struck Colombia this Monday.
"Starting today at 6:00 PM (local time) we have decreed a curfew until 5:00 AM (local time) to protect the commerce of the city. This curfew will be in the center of Pereira, in the Universidad Commune and in the Cuba sub-center," Salazar specified in statements to the media.
The councilor of Pereira, capital of the department of Risaralda, has also asked residents to avoid driving during that same time frame, so that "rescue agencies can transit without difficulties."
"Today Pereira is going through a difficult situation," he pointed out, after placing the number of fatalities due to the earthquake at least 55, whose epicenter is located near San José del Palmar, in the department of Chocó, in the northwest of the country.
Among the decisions adopted by Salazar is the suspension "until further notice" of classes, warning that there are infrastructures of educational centers "compromised." This is in addition to the collapse of "some hospital centers," along with 18 buildings "completely collapsed" and another 60 with partial damage.
MILITARIZATION AND RED ALERT IN HOSPITALS
In Cali, Mayor Alejandro Eder has set a curfew between 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM (local time) in order to "guarantee security in the city and the space and sufficient guarantees for rescuers to continue working."
Likewise, Eder has ordered the "militarization" of several sectors of the city, particularly of communes 19 and 17. At the same time, police and army personnel will patrol different areas of the city during the next few hours.
"These first 48 hours are critical for us to be able to rescue alive all the people who may be trapped in the collapsed buildings," the Cali mayor insisted, emphasizing that the institutions are working to restore the affected energy and water supplies in certain neighborhoods.
In addition, Eder has declared a red alert in the hospital network of Cali, with the aim that "all surgeries that are not urgent can be rescheduled" and the hospitals can concentrate their resources on attending to the emergency.