Pesaro, August 12, 2026 – “It just seemed like a gust of wind, but it was eternal, it never ended, so we ran out into the street. It was the earthquake.” Enrico Andreani, 34 years old, from Pesaro, son of the former Police Commissioner Gabriele, has been on vacation in Colombia for ten days and escaped the disaster: “At that moment – he recounts – I was with my girlfriend on the ground floor of a house in the Robledo neighborhood, on the hill in Medellin. As we were about to go out, it seemed like a gust of wind was coming, but it never stopped. The homeowner immediately told us it was the earthquake and we had to get out of the house immediately. It was 7:30 in the morning.”
“The tremors repeated 30, 40 times, gradually decreasing”
Enrico then observed the tremor from the street: “We didn’t see the buildings move, but you could hear creaking, while the cars, those did sway terribly from side to side. Fortunately, we were on the hill, just outside the epicenter area, and we waited for the tremor to end. Then my girlfriend Luz and I decided to take a walk and only then did we understand the severity of the earthquake. As we walked down the hill, since the bus doesn’t pass here and the streets are quite narrow, we saw many people outside the buildings and houses, from the hospital and the shopping center. Everyone was waiting for the signal to be able to go back inside. They stayed outside for at least an hour. The tremors repeated thirty, forty times, gradually decreasing.”
Some houses no longer exist
“We had breakfast and the first reports started coming in – Enrico continues –: about thirty buildings in an area of the city of Pereira had been destroyed. A friend of ours who lives in Germany has her family there. She was very worried because she couldn’t get in touch with her parents and had called us to ask if we could contact relatives. We managed to call someone who lived in the block where her family’s house was and they told us that area was completely destroyed and that dozens of families were homeless. Natalia’s parents, our friend, were saved because they were in a house in the countryside and are still there because their home in the city no longer exists. During the day, the television showed scenes with dead, over a hundred, and injured. Looking at how the houses are built here, I had the feeling that an earthquake could cause serious damage.”
Meanwhile, messages arrived on his phone: “Friends from the United States knew we were here and asked if everything was okay. My parents from Pesaro also tried to reach me but I didn’t have my phone with me. I reassured them with my girlfriend’s phone.” Despite everything, Enrico decided to stay: “Yes, I will finish my vacation and return to Pesaro on Saturday.”
