After Japan, Ecuador Hit by 7.8-Magnitude Quake
After two powerful earthquakes rocked Japan last week, the world now turns its attention to another devastation, this time a more powerful one hitting Ecuador.
NBC News reports that only after a day when the 7.8 magnitude quake hit the country, there are already 246 confirmed deaths, while hundreds, possibly thousands are either wounded or still trapped in rubble and collapsed houses in the country's northwestern coast.
President Rafael Correa immediately ended his ongoing tour in Italy and declared a state of emergency. "Thank you to the whole world for solidarity," he said via Twitter. "Our infinite love to the families of the dead," he added in his tweet.
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According to CNN, rescue crews were immediately dispatched to find trapped survivors. While earlier reports said that the death toll is at 246, the report is saying that it already reach 272 as of this writing, although it really is impossible to have an accurate and fixed count since that number is expected to rise once rescuers are able to reach the area which have been hit the hardest, which in this case is the coastal province of Manabi.
The country's national emergency management office added that in Manabi alone, about 200 people are reported dead and several more missing. According to several sources, Sunday's quake is the strongest to hit the country since 1979. There are several areas that no longer have power while chaos is obvious with people trying to flee their homes in fears of aftershocks and debris falling.
The state of emergency effectively covers several provinces including Esmeraldas, Manabi, Santa Elena, Los Rios, Santo Domingo, and Guayas. Although the capital city, Quito, is a hundred miles away from the epicenter, the quake was felt there.
Ecuador's vice president, Jorge Glas, told reporters that they already dispatched about 10,000 troops from the military and 3,500 more from the police to assist in the rescue and salvage operations.
