Rescue crews in western Colombia have shifted from searching for survivors to clearing rubble, a grim milestone four days after a magnitude-7.4 earthquake tore through the Chocó region and rattled cities across the country's interior. The confirmed death toll climbed to 273 as of Thursday, with 377 people still officially listed as missing and more than 3,800 injured, according to Colombia's National Unit for Disaster Risk Management.

The quake struck at 7:30 a.m. local time Monday near San José del Palmar, about 250 miles west of Bogotá, and was felt as far away as Ecuador and Panama. It toppled apartment blocks and damaged homes, schools and hospitals across Cali — Colombia's third-largest city — as well as Pereira, Manizales, Buenaventura and Quibdó. More than 150 aftershocks have rattled the region since the initial jolt.

The toll keeps climbing

More than 12,500 homes have been destroyed and upwards of 25,800 families displaced, officials say, while crowdsourced tracking efforts run by Colombian civilians put the number of missing far higher — over 4,100 names logged as unaccounted for, though authorities caution the figure likely includes duplicates and people since found safe. In Cali, the hardest-hit major city, search-and-rescue teams have largely given way to heavy machinery clearing collapsed structures, marking the disaster's passage past the critical 72-hour survival window.

WE ARE REACHING A POINT WHERE THE LIKELIHOOD OF FINDING SURVIVORS IS DWINDLING, BUT OUR MISSION IS TO KEEP SEARCHING. — David Tamayo, Colombia's National Unit for Disaster Risk Management

Cali Mayor Alejandro Eder had earlier described the hours immediately after the quake as "the most critical to find and rescue people alive." Reuters reporting from the disaster zone described crews working through the night with thermal cameras and search dogs before the operation's focus shifted to recovery.

President Abelardo De La Espriella has announced plans to declare an economic emergency and stand up a national reconstruction fund to rebuild hospitals, schools, homes and infrastructure across the affected departments. The United States has pledged more than $15 million in aid, and Mexico has sent over 39 tons of relief supplies and redeployed its Topos de Tlatelolco rescue teams — volunteers who had just finished responding to an earlier earthquake in Venezuela — to help dig through rubble in Chocó and Valle del Cauca.

International solidarity is also taking a cultural turn: a benefit concert is planned for Miami on August 16, headlined by Marc Anthony and Luis Fonsi, with proceeds earmarked for earthquake relief. CBS News' on-the-ground coverage has documented families in Cali and Pereira sifting through debris for salvageable belongings as government inspectors mark buildings safe or condemned.

What's next: authorities plan to keep debris-clearing and recovery operations running through the weekend, while the promised reconstruction fund moves toward a formal rollout. Al Jazeera's earlier dispatches from the disaster zone noted the scale of destruction already rivaled Colombia's most damaging earthquakes in decades, and officials have not ruled out further revisions to the death toll as debris removal continues.