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PEDERNALES (ECUADOR), April 17, 2016
Updated: April 18, 2016 01:43 IST
Earthquake kills 238 in Ecuador, devastates coast zone
AP
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Volunteers retrieve a body from a destroyed house after a massive earthquake in
Pedernales, Ecuador on, Sunday.
AP Volunteers retrieve a body from a destroyed house after a massive earthquake
in Pedernales, Ecuador on, Sunday.
TOPICS
World
Ecuador
natural disasters
earthquake
The government calls it the worst quake in the country since 1979.
Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to h
it Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific
coast. Officials said the quake had killed at least 238 people and injured more
than 1,500.
The magnitude 7.8 quake, the strongest to hit Ecuador since 1979, was centered on
Ecuador s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, 105 miles (170 kil
ometers) northwest of Quito, the capital.
Vice President Jorge Glas reported the death toll at a somber news conference, w
hile President Rafael Correa flew back from Rome to deal with the crisis. He sai
d 1,557 people were injured.
Glas said there were deaths in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil all
several hundred kilometers (miles) from the center of the quake, which struck s
hortly after nightfall Saturday.
In Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake s epicenter, dozens of frightened r
esidents slept in the streets while men equipped with little more than car headl
ights tried to rescue survivors who could be heard trapped under the rubble.
We re trying to do the most we can, but there s almost nothing we can do,
les Mayor Gabriel Alcivar.

said Pederna

Alcivar pleaded for authorities to send earth moving machines and rescue workers t
o help find people in the rubble. He said looting had broken out amid the chaos
but authorities were too busy trying to save lives to re establish order.
This wasn t just a house that collapsed. It was an entire town,

he said.

Correa declared a national emergency and urged Ecuadoreans to stay strong.

Everything can be rebuilt, but what can t be rebuilt are human lives, and that s the
most painful, he said in a telephone call to state TV before departing Rome for M
anta.
Glas said the country had already deployed 10,000 armed forces. In addition, 4,6
00 national police were sent to towns near the epicenter.

Would be rescuers scrambled through the ruins in the provincial capital Portoviejo
, digging with their hands to find survivors. As officials set up shelters and f
ield hospitals, residents said they felt like their entire town had been flatten
ed.
More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being deliv
ered. Electricity in Manabi province, the hardest hit, remained mostly down as aut
horities focused on finding survivors.
Compatriots- Unity, strength and prayer, Glas told a throng of residents gathered
in the streets of Manta as he instructed them on how to look for survivors. We ne
ed to be quiet so we can hear. We can t use heavy machinery because it can be very
tragic for those who are injured.
On social media, Ecuadorians celebrated a video of a baby girl being pulled from
beneath a collapsed home in Manta.
Shanty towns and cheaply constructed brick and concrete homes were reduced to rubb
le along the quake s path, while in Guayaquil a shopping center s roof fell down and
a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car. In Manta, the airport closed after
the control tower collapsed, injuring an air traffic control worker and a securi
ty guard.
Alberto Reynas, 58, was fishing off the coast of Pedernales when giant waves vio
lently rocked his boat.
It felt the same on sea as it did on land,

he said.

But he was shaken again when he returned to land to find the facade of his two sto
ry home had fallen into the street. He was unable to communicate with members of
his family and spent the night sleeping outdoors with neighbors, keeping a clos
e watch against thieves.
It s pure sadness. Everything is destroyed,

he said.

Luis Quito said he spent the entire night delivering water to guests trapped und
er the rubble of the four story hotel owned by his father in law, the Hotel Chimborazo
. He said his father in law was missing and feared dead.
We hear screaming all through the night, said Quito as he decried the slow respons
e by emergency workers. There are humans trapped below the terrace. Babies. We ne
ed rescuers. But nobody has arrived so far.
In the capital, Quito, terrified people fled into the streets as the quake shook
buildings. One resident shot a video of his lamps and hanging houseplants swing
ing wildly for more than half a minute as the building rocked back and forth. Th
e quake knocked out electricity in several neighborhoods and a few homes collaps
ed, but after a few hours power was being restored.
Among those killed was the driver of a car crushed by an overpass that buckled i
n Guayaquil, the country s most populous city. Two Canadians were also among the d
ead. The city s international airport was briefly closed. Hydroelectric dams and o
il pipelines in the OPEC member nation were shut down as a precautionary measure b
ut so there were no reports of damage to them.
Towns near the epicenter were evacuated as a precautionary measure in case of ha
zardous tsunami waves, but several hours later authorities said it was safe for
coastal residents to return to their homes.
Ecuador s ally, Venezuela, pledged humanitarian aid while neighboring Colombia, wh

ere the quake was also felt, said it stands ready to help in any way possible. T
he European Union, Spain, Peru and Mexico have also pledged aid, Glas said. The
government is drawing on $600 million in emergency funding from multilateral ban
ks to rebuild, Correa said.
The U.S. Geological Survey originally put the quake at a magnitude of 7.4 then r
aised it to 7.8. It had a depth of 19 km. More than 135 aftershocks followed, on
e as strong as magnitude 5.6, and authorities urged residents to brace for even st
ronger ones in the coming hours and days.
David Rothery, a professor of geosciences at The Open University northeast of Lo
ndon said the quake was about six times as strong as the most powerful of two de
adly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japan s four main isla
nds.
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Thursday near Kumamoto, followed by a magnitude 7.
0 earthquake just 28 hours later. Those quakes killed 41 people and injured abou
t 1,500, flattening houses and triggering major landslides.
On Sunday, thousands of rescue workers searched a debris strewn village in souther
n Japan for about a half dozen missing people as U.S. military aircraft rushed to
join the relief mission.
Keywords: Ecuador earthquake
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