Leidy Johana Yépez survived after a floor collapsed beneath her in Pereira earthquake

Leidy Johana Yépez was inside Pereira’s Invico building when the 12th floor collapsed beneath her during a magnitude 7.4 earthquake on Aug. 10. She and another woman survived, even though initial reports indicated that people on the floor had died beneath the rubble.

The 15-story building remains damaged but standing, and the 12th floor disappeared entirely after an internal crushing collapse. Almost a month later, Yépez described how firefighters rescued her after she spent nearly eight hours trapped under concrete slabs.

Yépez, 33, worked in one of two apartments on the building’s 15th floor. Her employer was in hospital at the time, and Yépez had entered the apartment to collect some items. She left at 7:33 a.m., called the elevator and was preparing to go down when the ground began to shake violently.

She descended three floors and reached the 12th floor, where she saw a neighbor standing near a doorway. Yépez went toward her so they could take the stairs together, but dust began falling and the 13th floor collapsed onto them within seconds. The impact threw both women into the apartment.

“The movements were extremely violent, and the walls and slabs fell on us. Everything collapsed. It was just the two of us on that floor. We fell almost together and were both trapped, but walls fell on her legs and she could not move. Something struck my neck, and it should have broken it, but God protected me,” Yépez said. She freed herself from some of the debris, found her phone and posted a WhatsApp status asking for help and saying she was trapped with another person on the 12th floor. The message eventually went through when she regained a signal, and the father of her children called her.

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The movements were extremely violent, and the walls and slabs fell on us. Everything collapsed. It was just the two of us on that floor. We fell almost together and were both trapped, but walls fell on her legs and she could not move. Something struck my neck, and it should have broken it, but God protected me.