PORTOVIEJO: An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude shook Ecuador, killing more than 350 people while more than 41 people were killed when a series of quakes hit Japan. The disaster shook the small South American nation, bringing down buildings and reducing the region to nothing but a cluster of rubble and cement. More than 2,000 people were injured as homes and hotels tumbled during the quake, and its dozens of aftershocks.
While capital Quito, was spared with nothing much but a few cracked walls and power outages, devastation along the coast prompted rescue operations from neighbouring Colombia, Mexico, and El Salvador. A prison was knocked down in the temblor, opening walls for nearly 100 inmates to escape. While some have been recaptured, several are still on the hunt. The air in hardest hit Portoviejo, stank of decaying bodies as rescuers raced against time to find survivors. “We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped,” said a worker digging through the debris of a six-story hotel El Gato.
Officials declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of “exception”, both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security forces and officials to react faster. President Rafael Correa cut his official trip to the Vatican short, visiting the disaster zone. He said the latest toll of 350 dead “will certainly rise and probably in a considerable way”.
41 killed in Japan
Army troops and other rescuers rushed to save scores of trapped residents after a pair of strong earthquakes in southwestern Japan killed at least 41 people, injured about 1,500 and left hundreds of thousands without electricity or water. Rainfall was forecast to start pounding the area soon, threatening to further complicate the relief operation and set off more mudslides in isolated rural towns, where people were waiting to be rescued from collapsed homes.
Japanese media reported that nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity, and that drinking water systems had also failed in the area. TV video showed people huddled in blankets, sitting or lying down shoulder-to-shoulder on the floors of evacuation centers. An estimated 400,000 households were without running water.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that 1,500 people had been injured in the quakes. Tajima said that 184 people were injured seriously, and that more than 91,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. More than 200 homes and other buildings were either destroyed or damaged, she said.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed concern about secondary disasters as forecasters predicted rain and strong winds later in the day. With the soil already loosened by the quakes, rainfall can set off mudslides.
