FEAR, GRIEF FOLLOW DEADLY EARTHQUAKE
Some affectionately call Machala the “Banana Capital of the World.” This port community on Ecuador’s Pacific coast is home to about a quarter-million people and normally bustles with commercial activity. But not this weekend, not after the deadly quake.
Grief hung in the air on Sunday, a day after a powerful temblor rocked this city, toppling homes and buildings along the coast and as far off as the Ecuadorian highlands and even parts of Peru.
Rubble covered some streets of Machala. Neighbors held simple funerals to bury the dead. A pier was no more. And a day after the quake that killed nine residents alone along this hardhit coast, many in Machala were feeling anguished and uneasy.
“The city is quiet, fear and mourning are felt,” resident
Luis Becerra said. “You feel the pain, the drama, wherever you go. Everyone is alert, with great fear in case” a major aftershock.
The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported at magnitude 6.8, killed at least 15 people and injured more than 445 others. Fourteen died in Ecuador, and one in Peru.
The quake damaged and brought down hundreds of homes and buildings in vastly different communities, in both coastal areas and the highlands. Many were old, did not meet modern building standards of a quakeprone country and many of their inhabitants were poor.
Machala resident Hamilton Cedillo said Sunday that he and his family barely slept in the hours afterward, fearful of deadly aftershocks. They have come up with an evacuation plan and watched videos on how to protect themselves should another quake strike.
“I am afraid of leaving and that my family will be left here alone at home,” Cedillo said.
Ecuador’s government issued an emergency declaration covering the roads in Azuay, where the quake debris cut off several roads. One of the victims was a passenger in a vehicle crushed by rubble from a house in the community of Cuenca.