COMPUTER GRAPHICS / VIDEO – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the country Saturday night. According to authorities, the damage is considerable near the epicenter but also in more distant places like Guayaquil.
This is the earthquake most violent known Ecuador since 1979. Saturday night, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake shook the country, causing 235 deaths, according to a new balance statement Sunday by Vice President Jorge Glas. More than 1557 people were injured, authorities said. This assessment is not final as relief operations continued Sunday to try to find survivors in some of the most affected areas. A previous statement released in the morning was state 77 dead and nearly 600 injured. The state of emergency was declared.
Le quake was felt throughout the country and even in western Colombia, Cali. “At first it was light but it lasted a long time and it has become stronger,” he told Maria Jaramillo, a resident of Guayaquil in the south of the country, citing broken glass and debris falling from roofs. “I was on the seventh floor and the light went out in the entire neighborhood and we evacuated the premises. People were very anxious in the street (…) We went barefoot, “she has said.
President Rafael Correa, who cut short a visit to Italy to return home, decreed a state of emergency throughout Ecuador and called its 16 million people to do not give in to panic. The government recommended that the population away from the coastline for fear of breaking waves which, according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, could reach 30 cm to one meter.
The epicenter was located off the Pacific at a depth of 20 km. The strongest quake occurred Saturday at 6:58 p.m. local time, at 2:00 tonight in France. It ‘was preceded by another event magnitude of 5.0 and followed by a series of replicas. The Geophysical Institute (IG) recorded aftershocks of magnitude 5.5 in the Manabi province (southwest), from 4.6 to Santo Domingo de los Tsachila (center) and 7.7 on the coast.
According to the Government, the damage is “considerable” especially in the Western coastal areas near the epicenter, and in the large port city of Guayaquil. “Some villages are completely devastated,” said the radio Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of the city of Pedernales in the province of Manabi, hit hard. “What happened here in Pedernales, is catastrophic.”
In Guayaquil, Ecuador, a bridge collapsed after the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that struck the country.
Rescuers involved in a mall in the city of Manta Copyright: ARIEL OCHOA / AFP
The authorities have however provided few details on the situation in Guayaquil, frequent starting point for foreign tourists visiting the Galapagos archipelago. Photos posted on social networks on the internet show a collapsed bridge in the coastal town and light damage in the lobby of a hotel. The capital Quito, located 170 km from the epicenter was relatively spared. Some neighborhoods were without electricity but no victim is to be deplored. Only a few cracks basking walls of shopping malls.
At the time of shaking, Cristina Duran, 45, took refuge under a doorway for protection from flying glass shards in Quito. “I was terrified and I just wanted it to stop,” she said. “My God, this is the longest and strongest earthquake I have ever felt in my life. During a while, I got dizzy (…) I wanted to run out in the street, but I could not, “he told Maria Torres, 60. Moreover, Manta airport (Manabi) was closed due to “serious damage to the control tower.” Passengers are frightened out of the terminal. “Lamps fell from the ceiling and people were running scared,” said Luis Quimis, 30, who was waiting for a flight to Quito.
In Peru, another earthquake of 7.4 was recorded Meanwhile, no casualties. The previous two days, the earth trembled from the other side of the Pacific. Two strong earthquakes struck Japan, killing at least 41 people Friday and Saturday night.
(With agencies)
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