Armenia has a well known high seismic risk, due to the triple junction that occurs at the northwest corner of the South American Plate where the Nazca, Cocos, and Pacific plates converge.
The epicenter was 25 miles (40 km) west south west of Ibague, Colombia. The magnitude of the event was 6.2.
About 60% of the existent poorly engineered structures in Armenia collapsed, due to the high amount of old structures, built without technical requirements and the lack of urban planning and land studies. Most of the newer buildings, built since the new standards were introduced in 1984 survived intact.
The final death toll was estimated to be about 1,185 dead, 4750 injured, 700 missing and 200,000 homeless. There were widespread reports of looting in Armenia, after the earthquake. Residents angered at the slow pace of the relief effort, began breaking into food stores and stealing supplies.
The Colombian president, Andres Pastrana, postponed a trip to attend a World Bank meeting in Germany and flew instead to Pereira to see the devastation. He also sent in troops to restore order.
Overall, I think that the buildings should be built stronger, at least to the technical requirements. Should another earthquake happens, most of the buildings would not collapse, and the percentage of people being trapped in rubble will be greatly decreased. Also, fewer residents would be homeless and the repair work would take a shorter period of time.
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Armenia,_Colombia_earthquake
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/25/newsid_2506000/2506407.stm
http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/10/08/quake-colombia.jpg
