An Aigburth woman has said she has not "slept in days" after fearing for her family's safety following a devastating earthquake in Panama. On Friday afternoon (October 9), a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck the southern coast of Panama, causing huge damage to homes, schools, roads and almost all surrounding infrastructure across large parts of the country.
While a national state of emergency has been declared by President José Raúl Mulino, remarkably no deaths or missing persons have been confirmed.
Family trapped in high-rise
Having grown up in Malvern in the West Midlands before moving to Liverpool for university 22 years ago, Rocío Castillero has been used to spending much of her life living thousands of miles away from her dad's side of the family, who live in and around Panama's capital city, Panama City.
While many across the world watched the devastation in Panama unfold on their TV screens last week, Rocío was sent minute-by-minute updates from her family in real-time as she waited in nervous anticipation to discover the true toll of the situation.
She told the ECHO: "We have a family WhatsApp group, and people started saying that they could feel tremors. Immediately, everybody started getting in touch with each other.
"I spoke to my older brother, Alfredo, he was trying to walk from his house to my father's flat in the middle of the earthquake, which was at a magnitude of 7.7. But my father was actually trapped in a 21st-floor flat in a 50-floor high-rise.
"And he couldn't get out because the lifts had actually been cut off for security reasons. And one of the things that they tend to actually say to you as well is that staircases are actually quite dangerous, so he didn't actually do that either."
Father's ordeal
While her dad, Alfredo, is one of Panama's most celebrated historians and authors, previously receiving recognition from the likes of King Felipe VI of Spain and being given keys to Panama's capital city, Rocío has seen her dad's usually strong attitude worn away after spending days trapped inside his apartment.
Rocío said: "My dad is one of my heroes, he has always been a person who has been very strong, very kind, physically able. To give an example, he has written two books in the last year, and he's 89-years-old. His books are prized, the King of Spain gave him prizes for his writings and his discoveries.
"But all that knowledge and all that incredible intellect collapses when you're in the middle of nature's mighty anger. I saw him collapse, and that was horrible, because all I wanted to do was to be there. I wanted to actually be able to hug him, but I couldn't."
After her dad was finally able to leave his flat for the first time in three days on Monday (October 12), she said: "I have not slept in days. The level of fear that you have as somebody who's abroad and can't do anything for their family is awful. As somebody with a loved one, you feel quite impotent. You can't actually do anything.
Infrastructure damage
"The infrastructure is destroyed throughout the country. The undergrounds, gas, electricity and water [infrastructure] need to be rebuilt. My cousin, for example, she went into the oncology department. She was there for treatment, unfortunately, and, they were all running out. And one of the things that people tell me, men and women, everybody that I've actually spoken to, is just the fear factor. And how vulnerable and how impotent they felt."
