Grieving Ecuadoreans fear aftershocks
The death toll from Saturday’s earthquake stands at 15. Hundreds of buildings and homes were damaged.
QUITO, Ecuador — Some affectionately call Machala the “banana capital of the world.” The port community on Ecuador’s Pacific coast is home to about a quarter-million people and normally bustles with commercial activity. But not after Saturday’s deadly quake.
Grief hung in the air Sunday, after the powerful temblor rocked the city, toppling homes and buildings along the coast and as far away as the Ecuadorean highlands and parts of Peru.
Rubble covered some streets of Machala. A pier was gone. And a day after the quake that killed nine residents along this hard-hit coast alone, 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.” He added that “everyone is alert, with great fear” in case of a major aftershock.
The quake, which the U.S. Geological Survey reported at magnitude 6.8, killed at least 15 people — 14 in Ecaudor and one in Peru — and injured more than 445 others.
The quake damaged and brought down hundreds of homes and buildings in both coastal areas and highlands. But regardless of geography, many of the Ecuadorean homes that crumbled had much in common: They were old, did not meet modern seismic standards and had impoverished inhabitants.
Yajaira Albarracín, Graciela Chila, Silvina Zambrano Chila and two children died under the rubble of their home in a low-income neighborhood of Machala. On Sunday, a few neighbors stopped by a tent where the caskets of the women were set out with floral arrangements and a crucifix. Relatives said rescuers who found the bodies said they looked as if they had been clutching one another when disaster struck.
The earthquake was centered just off the Pacific coast, about 50 miles south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city. Of the country’s 14 victims, 12 died in the southwest coastal state of El Oro, which includes Machala, and two in the highlands state of Azuay.
Ecuador is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. In 2016, a quake centered farther north along the coast killed more than 600 people.
Machala resident Hamilton Cedillo said Sunday that his family barely slept in the hours after Saturday’s quake, fearful of 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.
Pope Francis, who is from Argentina, offered prayers for the victims during his Sunday noon blessing.
“I’m close to the Ecuadorean people and assure them of my prayers for the dead and suffering,” Francis said.
Ecuador’s government issued an emergency declaration covering the roads in Azuay, where quake debris cut off several arteries and worsened already poor conditions attributed to rainstorms. One of the quake victims there was a passenger in a vehicle that was crushed by rubble from a house in the community of Cuenca.
In El Oro, several people were trapped under rubble or in damaged buildings, according to the Risk Management Secretariat, Ecuador’s emergency response agency.
Quito-based architect Germán Narváez said houses hit hardest tend to lack solid foundations and be deficient in structural and technical design. He added that the most vulnerable homes are often old and built with adobe, once frequently used in the region.
“At critical moments of seismic movements, they tend to collapse,” he said.
Juan Vera lost three relatives when the earthquake brought down his niece’s home. The government has offered to pay for the funerals of Vera’s niece, her baby and her partner.
Now, Vera wonders why local authorities allowed his relatives to live there to begin with, saying the municipality should better regulate building conditions and ensure that only those that are safe are occupied.
“Because of its age, that building should have been demolished already,” Vera said.