The IDF has assisted many thousands of Colombians to return to hospitals, schools, and hundreds of other structures partially damaged by the August 10 earthquake that Israeli experts have judged as sufficiently safe, Colombian delegation deputy chief IDF Col. Ehud Moyal told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview on Sunday.
Many thousands of Colombians resided in some hundreds of buildings which initial evaluations by the combined Israeli-Colombian engineering teams have already established are stable, out of a much larger number of structures whose stability still needs to be reviewed, Moyal explained to the Post.
Moyal said that the Israeli delegation would return home in the coming days.
Speaking to the Post from Colombia, Moyal noted that the IDF has already handed over its artificial intelligence and other hi-tech systems to Colombia in recent days regarding the high volume of additional structures still needing to be checked.
The systems the IDF has provided will facilitate mapping out those structures which might be usable, as well as those that need to be demolished – along with how best to carry out demolition processes – and estimates on how long it could take for replacement structures to be built.
Many aspects of the systems are similar to the work carried out by the IDF in Venezuela in July, Moyal said.
The difference is that the Venezuela team consisted of some 35 staffers and engineers, whereas the Colombia team was larger, including over 80 staffers and engineers, with nearly half the team being dedicated to physical rescue attempts.
Venezuela did not request assistance despite larger disaster than Colombia
While the disaster in Venezuela was even larger than the one in Colombia, the government in Caracas did not request a rescue team from Israel, though Colombia did.
According to the IDF Colombia delegation deputy chief, part of the system Israel has provided to Colombia categorizes the structures and then defines them to be treated on different tracks based on the severity of the damage they have suffered.
IDF officials explained to the Post that the disaster management and evaluation systems are designed for intake, tracking, and analysis of harmed structures, especially in Cali, a city of over 2.3 million people.
Most IDF efforts were focused in Cali for over 10 days since shortly after August 13, when the Israeli and Colombian governments authorized deploying the Israeli disaster assistance team, Moyal noted.
In the initial stage, he said, the rescue teams went into action to try to extract any living or deceased persons from disaster areas where the Colombians told them that they had heard voices, breathing, or other sounds indicating possible survivors.
At the second stage, Israeli engineers were deployed to evaluate the sturdiness and stability of the damaged buildings, he stated.
At the third stage, Moyal explained, Israeli engineers carried out a more systematic and technology-guided search for remaining missing persons, including the unrecovered remains of deceased persons.
At certain points, the Israeli team also strategically used drones to aid in their mission.
Moyal said that the decision that the delegation could soon leave came after Israel helped Colombia locate the last remaining missing person. This entailed Israel’s delegation staying on longer than most other delegations.
The IDF deputy chief said that he had met with and received high compliments from Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder and that IDF delegation chief Brig.-Gen. (res.) Yossi Pinto had met with top Colombian national defense officials.
Moyal noted that “Israeli engineers went into a damaged hospital; it was empty because the staff were afraid to go in. They had been told previously that the ceilings and walls were dangerous. They looked at us like we were crazy to go in.”
“But we have the best people, and after 90 minutes, we knew the hospital was fine, with some small reinforcement measures to a pillar here or there. Our engineers provided a great service,” he said.
Further, he recalled, after he told the hospital chief that it could reopen for business, she tracked him down in his car before he pulled away and asked him to come back to speak to her staff.
The entire hospital staff of 60 to 70 employees were standing, waiting to hear from him, and until he explained to them directly why the building was technically safe, they were not ready to return.
Moyal: I received ‘many hugs,’ attended ‘very emotional ceremony’
After his explanation, he “received many hugs and there was an emotional outpouring of gratitude,” he said.
Moyal also noted that he and other IDF team members visited a Cali Jewish synagogue last week where hundreds of families attended “a very emotional ceremony.”
He said that there were “many tears as they sang the prayer for the welfare of IDF soldiers and the Hatikvah national anthem.”
Moreover, he complimented the Foreign Ministry, the Defense Ministry, and others on their intensive cooperation with the IDF rescue and home front teams.
