Rescuers pulled survivors from rubble Sunday after the strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast. At least 246 people were killed — including two Canadians — and another 2,500 injured.
The magnitude-7.8 quake, the strongest to hit the country since 1979, was centred on Ecuador’s sparsely populated fishing ports and tourist beaches, about 170 kilometres northwest of the capital of Quito.
A sombre Vice-President Jorge Glas told a news conference that the death toll was likely to rise. Much of the damage occurred in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo and Guayaquil — all several hundred kilometres from the centre of the quake, which struck shortly after nightfall Saturday.
He said accessing the disaster zone was difficult due to landslides. “The entire public force is in a state of maximum alert to protect the lives of citizens,” Glas said in a televised address.
A Quebec woman and her 12-year-old son were among those killed, a family friend told Radio-Canada.
Jennifer Mawn and Arthur Laflamme — part of a family of four who had moved to Ecuador last fall — were at home inside their apartment when the shaking began and ultimately caused the ceiling to collapse.
Mawn’s husband, Pierre Laflamme, and the couple’s second child, Laurie-Ann, had minor injuries.
Global Affairs Canada confirmed the deaths of two Canadians in an email to CBC News but declined to release further details due to privacy reasons.
“To date, we are working with the families of two Canadian citizens who were tragically killed during this earthquake,” spokeswoman Rachna Mishra said in an email. “Consular officials in Ottawa are in contact with the family and have offered their support and consular assistance.”
President Rafael Correa signed a decree declaring a national emergency and urged citizens to stay strong while authorities handle the disaster.
“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 for Manta.
Police, soldiers dispatched
More than 14,000 police and soldiers were sent to towns near the epicentre.
Searchers scrambled through ruins in Portoviejo, digging with their hands trying to find survivors. As officials set up shelters and field hospitals, residents said they felt like the entire town had been flattened.
“For god’s sake, help me find my family,” pleaded 27-year-old Manuel Quijije. He said his older brother, Junior, was trapped under a pile of twisted steel and concrete with two relatives.
“We managed to see his arms and legs. They’re his, they’re buried, but the police kicked us out because they say there’s a risk the rest of the building will collapse,” Quijije said angrily. “We’re not afraid. We’re desperate. We want to pull out our family.”
More than 3,000 packages of food and nearly 8,000 sleeping kits were being delivered. Electricity mostly remained out in Manabi province, the hardest-hit region, as authorities focused on finding survivors.
“Compatriots: Unity, strength and prayer,” Glas told a throng of people in Manta as he instructed them on how to look for survivors. “We need to be quiet so we can hear. We can’t use heavy machinery because it can be very tragic for those who are injured.”
Baby rescued, prisoners escape
On social media, Ecuadorians celebrated a video of a baby girl being pulled from beneath a collapsed home in Manta.
But the prospect of another night in the streets grew more worrisome for many people after authorities announced that 180 prisoners from a jail near Portoviejo escaped amid the tumult after the quake.
Shantytowns and cheaply constructed brick and concrete homes were reduced to rubble along the quake’s path. In the coastal town of La Esmeralda, authorities estimated than 90 per cent of homes had damage, while in Guayaquil a shopping centre’s roof fell down and a collapsed highway overpass crushed a car, killing the driver.
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 swinging wildly for more than 30 seconds as the building rocked back and forth. The quake knocked out electricity in several neighbourhoods and a few homes collapsed, but after a few hours power was being restored.
Hydroelectric dams and oil pipelines in the OPEC-member nation were shut down as a precautionary measure but there were no reports of damage to them.
Ecuador’s ally, Venezuela, and neighbouring Colombia, where the quake was also felt, organized airlifts of humanitarian aid. The European Union, Spain, Peru and Mexico also pledged aid, while Pope Francis from the Vatican, where Correa on Friday had been attending a papal conference, asked the world’s Roman Catholics to pray for victims. The government would draw on $600 million in emergency funding from multilateral banks to rebuild, Correa said.
The USGS originally put the quake at a magnitude of 7.4 then raised it to 7.8. It had a depth of 19 kilometres. At least 135 aftershocks followed, one as strong as 6 on the Richter scale. Authorities urged residents to brace for even stronger ones in the coming hours and days.
The quake comes on the heels of two deadly earthquakes across the Pacific, in the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Thursday near Kumamoto, followed by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake just 28 hours later. The quakes have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500, flattened houses and triggered major landslides.
On Sunday, thousands of rescue workers searched a debris-strewn village in southern Japan for about a half-dozen missing people as U.S. military aircraft rushed to join the relief mission.
Ecuador’s earthquake was about six times stronger and released more energy than the one in Japan a day before.
@Agency report.
