They've survived 2 major earthquakes in Colombia: "A sense of powerlessness"

Jahir Rodríguez knew what was happening when he saw thick, dark clouds forming near his home in western Colombia on Monday morning. Parts of his dear Pereira were crumbling. The urban planner and former professor also knows what happens next after a powerful earthquake devastates whole communities. He sprang into action after a deadly 1999 quake in Armenia, about 30 miles away from his current home, that killed around 1,200 people. He did so again three days ago when a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck the same region, killing at least 265 people and trapping hundreds under debris across several states. "You feel a sense of powerlessness," Rodríguez said as he recalled seeing glass shattering and water seeping through the cracked and fallen walls of shaken buildings."You will be here for years"Rodríguez, who is 68 and retired, learned how to respond to earthquakes after the disaster in Colombia's coffee region at the turn of the century. He gained valuable insights from a delegation of Japanese responders who had faced a deadly quake in Osaka in 1995. "It is a mistake to think that you will be here for days or months," Rodríguez said they told him. "You will be here for years." Rodrí...