By Julia Symmes Cobb, Santiago Limachi, Luis Jaime Acosta and Nelson Bocanegra
CALI/PEREIRA, Colombia, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Colombia's President Abelardo De La Espriella on Wednesday vowed to set up an emergency fund to help rebuild hospitals, schools, homes and infrastructure destroyed by Monday's earthquake, which killed 265 and left nearly 500 people unaccounted for.
"This is undoubtedly a tragedy of immense proportions," De La Espriella, who was inaugurated three days before the 7.4 magnitude-quake
collapsed buildings across major cities in western Colombia, said in a national address. "Our efforts are focused on those who remain missing."
De La Espriella announced an economic emergency in the country to address damages caused by the earthquake, but did not clarify what measures that would entail.
Hours earlier, Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder warned rescue workers were racing against time as the clock runs out on a critical 72-hour window during which there are far greater chances of finding quake survivors.
Officials estimate the quake, which struck the South American country just after 7 a.m. local time (1200 GMT) on Monday, injured 3,770 people and destroyed more than 9,550 homes.
Pereira, deep in Colombia's coffee region, and Cali, its third-largest city, reported 83 and 74 deaths respectively.
FAMILIES AWAIT NEWS
Rescue efforts in Cali were concentrated around seven buildings that might still hold survivors.
At the Torres del Limonar complex in the southern part of the city, residents formed long bucket brigades with soldiers, employees of the mayor's office and others, handing down rubble from the peak of the debris.
Camilo Cano, a fire department official from Bogota, told Reuters that rescue efforts were more organized after police began restricting volunteers, which helped reduce noise and vibrations and allowed sensors to better detect movement under the debris.
He said the possibility of a serious aftershock posed risks to any large crowds, even as family members of those still trapped under the building waited anxiously nearby for news.
Some 30 km (19 miles) north-east of Cali in Palmira, relatives of the deceased waited outside a morgue on plastic chairs under the shade of trees. An official called out the names of identified bodies via a loud speaker.
Santiago Lloreda, 31, told Reuters he was at work when the quake hit his apartment, killing his mother and 13-month-old daughter Salma, who was too young to have a fingerprint registry and needs to be identified though DNA samples via Bogota.
"My daughter was a dream made reality," he said. "My mother was the pillar of our family, she took care of everyone and always made you laugh ... she gave everything up to look after the baby. It cost her life but it made her so proud and happy."
Ricardo, who did not share his last name, said he traveled from Miami to recover the body of his sister. He praised the efforts of doctors and neighbors' solidarity.
"There are heroes in there helping return our family's bodies to us as soon as they can," he said, adding that his niece was awaiting surgery for fractures to her skull, jaw, leg and a collapsed lung.
"She's alive. We know she's going to get better," he said.
FIRST TEST FOR NEW PRESIDENT
German Bahamon, the head of Colombia's coffee federation, said ports in Buenaventura have paused operations while inspectors evaluate the impact of landslides on key roads, but "exports continue as usual, mainly through Caribbean ports."
Colombia is the world's third-largest coffee producer, and hundreds of thousands of families rely on the sector.
De La Espriella, who won a narrow victory against the candidate of the prior leftist government on a platform centered on less public spending and tougher security, traveled to the affected regions early this week and pledged aid to those who lost homes and businesses. Several local mayors have announced nightly curfews, citing the possibility of looting.
"The earthquake will be the first test for the new Colombian president," said Tiziano Breda, senior analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean at conflict monitoring group ACLED.
"De La Espriella ran on a platform to cut public finances, including defunding the state's risk management unit," he added. "This unit is currently at the forefront of the emergency response."
Colombia's Foreign Minister Omar Bula rejected reports that the government had turned down international offers of aid, saying his office was coordinating the delivery of shipments that began arriving from Peru, Mexico and El Salvador.
The head of Topos Azteca, a Mexican search-and-rescue team, said in a video message that he had arrived straight from Venezuela, which suffered devastating twin quakes at the end of June.
Indira Meneses, 49, a nurse who lives with her two children and elderly mother, said the front of her home in Pereira collapsed, leaving them trapped inside. Their neighbors helped them get out, but they keep reliving the moment.
"I have five neighbors who died under the rubble," Meneses said. "We're waiting for local officials to help us rebuild and replace what we lost, but so far, no one has come."
(Reporting by Julia Symmes Cobb in Cali and Palmira, Santiago Limachi in Cali, Nelson Bocanegra in Pereira and Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogota; Writing by Sarah Morland and Kylie Madry; Editing by Paul Simao, Rosalba O'Brien and Lincoln Feast)
