Colombia's earthquake toll is climbing as the official count firms up, and the honest way to report a moving number is to show it moving, with dates and sources attached. We do not blend the two counts below.
On August 13, Al Jazeera reported the earthquake as killing at least 273 people and injuring at least 3,800 others, and the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management said 377 people were still missing [1]. That was the count as the critical rescue window was closing.
A later figure, dated August 15 and carried by Wikipedia citing the Spanish news agency EFE, puts the toll higher: at least 294 people died, 3,935 were injured, and 320 people remained missing [2]. Read across the two dates, the dead rose by 21 and the injured by 135, while the number listed as missing fell from 377 to 320, a drop that reflects people being found alive or confirmed among the dead.
Wikipedia describes the disaster as the deadliest earthquake in the country since 1999 [2]. We attach that characterization to its source rather than assert it ourselves. The figure that will keep changing is the missing count, because every name that leaves that column moves either to a reunion or to the death toll, and for 320 families in Colombia that question is still open.
