Colombia’s disaster relief chief vowed Friday to keep searching for hundreds of people still missing after a massive earthquake, as rescuers combed through rubble in a desperate effort to find survivors despite the end of the critical 72-hour rescue window.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake, the strongest to hit Colombia this century, devastated the western cities of Cali and Pereira, destroying nearly 13,000 homes across the coffee-growing region and along the coast.

The quake struck Monday, killing 281 people and injuring nearly 4,000, President Abelardo de la Espriella told reporters. Another 379 people remained missing.

Rescuers faced diminishing hopes of finding survivors, as most people trapped beneath earthquake rubble who are rescued alive are typically found within the first 72 hours. Still, emergency teams continued digging through collapsed buildings and debris in search of those unaccounted for.

David Tamayo, head of Colombia’s disaster relief agency, acknowledged that the "likelihood of finding survivors is going to diminish.”

"But our commitment is to never stop searching ... The order is to not rest until we find all the missing persons,” he said in a video posted by his agency late Thursday.

In Cali, many families who lost their homes sought refuge in makeshift camps set up in streets and parks.

Maria del Carmen Rodriguez, 72, lost the apartment she had saved for her entire life.

Cradling a cup of coffee, she gazed at her destroyed home from the football field where she had bedded down with her 76-year-old husband.

"We wonder what aid we’re entitled to, whether they’re going to relocate us somewhere else, because this is going to last a long time,” she told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

‘Lost my home’

De la Espriella declared the disaster an "economic emergency” and announced three days of national mourning.

"We will do what is necessary,” the newly appointed leader said, vowing to "emerge again as a country and as a society.”

Javier Alzate, a 79-year-old psychologist, was trying to remove tiles and chunks of debris that were blocking access to his damaged home in Pereira.

"It’s very distressing. Very sad. You work 40 or 50 years to buy a little house, struggling all that time to get it. I finally got it, and a few days later it’s gone,” Alzate said. "I lost my home and my car.”

The impoverished Choco region on the Pacific coast also suffered immensely, with some of its remote communities yet to be surveyed.

In the neighboring Valle del Cauca region, Gov. Dilian Francisca Toro said officials were conducting a census of damaged and destroyed homes to determine which buildings could still be occupied.

"We have to begin working because people simply cannot bear staying out on the streets any longer,” she said.

"People are telling us: ‘If you give us the materials, we’ll do the work ourselves,’” Toro said, describing plans for community-led reconstruction efforts.

‘Not alone’

Many Colombians have mobilized to help, bringing water, food and supplies to affected neighborhoods, while long lines have formed outside blood donation centers.

"Quake victims are not alone, that is a message we want to convey,” Laura Mendoza, a 47-year-old volunteer organizing donations in the capital, Bogota, told AFP.

"We are here giving what we can so that they at least have the most basic things,” she said.

A musician in Cali took to offering hugs to anyone who needed emotional support.

"We are going through a collective trauma, and I think the best way I could help was by giving away the energy I have and the vitality I have left,” Andres Solomon, 46, told AFP.

Colombia was preparing to receive international urban search-and-rescue teams from the United States, El Salvador, Ecuador and Israel, disaster authorities said.

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that Colombia had refused entry to Mexican rescuers over claims that they lacked the proper certification.

De la Espriella’s administration is facing criticism over allegations that it blocked rescue teams from countries with leftist governments, but it has denied the accusation.