A powerful earthquake of magnitude 7.4 struck western Colombia on Monday, leaving at least 111 people dead, hundreds of buildings damaged, and many trapped under debris as rescue workers and civilians searched through the rubble in cities such as Cali, Pereira, Quibdo, and Manizales. The epicenter of the quake was in San Jose Del Palmar, a community of around 4,800 people in the Choco region, approximately 250 miles west of Bogota. Colombia's President Abelardo de la Espriella declared an emergency to expedite funding for the recovery efforts and announced that at least 87 people were injured and over 1,600 buildings were damaged, including at least 61 that completely collapsed. The disaster zone was compared to ongoing searches in neighboring Venezuela following devastating earthquakes weeks earlier. Colombia's Pacific region, where the quake occurred, lies along the Ring of Fire, a line of seismic faults encircling the Pacific Ocean where most of the world's earthquakes occur. Many in Colombia were left unnerved by the disaster, as it followed back-to-back quakes that devastated neighboring Venezuela in late June, killing over 6,300 people. Residents and rescue workers searched through the rubble for survivors, with many reporting their loved ones missing on digital databases. The extent of the damage in remote areas such as Choco is still unclear due to poor infrastructure, and phone signals were out in many parts of the region's capital, Quibdo.