Latest / Spoken News / A magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Chocó Department, Colombia, leaving at least 254 people dead.

Transcript

A magnitude 7.4 earthquake strikes Chocó Department, Colombia, leaving at least 254 people dead. · Spoken News

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome to spoken News, where Wikipedia excerpts are read verbatim
• 0:04
  by a computer. A magnitude seven point four earthquake strikes
• 0:08
  Choco Department, Columbia, leaving at least two hundred fifty four
• 0:12
  people dead. On the tenth of August twenty twenty six,
• 0:15
  amw seven point four earthquake struck the Department of Choco
• 0:18
  in Colombia, killing at least two hundred fifty four people
• 0:22
  injuring more than two thousand, five hundred others, leaving more
• 0:25
  than four thousand, one hundred reported missing, and causing extensive
• 0:28
  damage across the country. The earthquake was felt to cross
• 0:32
  much of western and central Colombia and in parts of
• 0:34
  neighboring Ecuador and Panama, and caused extensive damage in Cali, Perera, Quebdo, Manazales,
• 0:40
  and other areas. The Colombian government declared a national emergency
• 0:44
  and launched search and rescue operations in affected areas. Choco
• 0:48
  Department is a department of the Pacific Region of Colombia,
• 0:51
  known for hosting the largest Afro Colombian population in the
• 0:54
  nation and a large population of Amerindian and mixed African
• 0:58
  Amerindian Colombians. It is in the west of the country
• 1:02
  and is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on
• 1:05
  both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It contains
• 1:08
  all of Colombia's border with Panama. Its capital is Quibdo.
• 1:12
  Chaco has a diverse geography, unique ecosystems, and unexploited natural resources. However,
• 1:18
  its population has one of the lowest standards of living
• 1:21
  of all departments in Colombia. A major factor cited by
• 1:24
  the government is the rugged montane rainforest environment and the hot,
• 1:28
  hyper humid climate. These factors have limited any significant infrastructure
• 1:32
  improvements to the region, and Chaco remains one of the
• 1:35
  most isolated regions of Columbia, with no major transportation infrastructure
• 1:40
  built since initial foundations were laid down in nineteen sixty
• 1:42
  seven for a highway connecting Chaco with the city of Medeline.
• 1:46
  The area has little access to medical care. In August
• 1:50
  twenty sixteen, Colombian media reported that some fifty children starved
• 1:54
  in less than three months, creating awareness of the grave
• 1:57
  condition Chaco's inhabitants are facing. That year, an additional ten
• 2:01
  adults and senior citizens of the indigenous community in Choco
• 2:05
  died due to preventable causes such as malaria and diarrhea.
• 2:08
  In spite of the department's ranking of world's ranious lowland
• 2:12
  with close to ten thousand millimeters of annual precipitation, Quibdo
• 2:16
  lacks sanitary drinking water. That's it for now. See the
• 2:20
  episode notes for sources and licensing. Thank you.