Machala resident Hamilton Cedillo said Sunday that he and his family barely slept in the hours afterward, fearful of deadly aftershocks. In 2016, a quake centered farther north on the Pacific Coast killed more than 600 people. 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.Įcuador is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes. The earthquake was centered just off the Pacific Coast, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second-largest city. Some relatives said rescuers found the bodies of the women and children as if they had been clutching one another when disaster struck. On Sunday, a few neighbors stopped by a tent where the caskets of the women where set out with floral arrangements and a crucifix. Yajaira Albarracín, Graciela Chila, Silvina Zambrano Chila and two children died under the rubble of their home in a low-income neighborhood of Machala. But in Ecuador, regardless of geography, many of the homes that crumbled had much in common: many were old, did not meet modern building standards of a quake-prone country and many of their inhabitants were poor. The quake damaged and brought down hundreds of homes and buildings in vastly different communities, both in coastal areas and the highlands. Fourteen died in Ecuador, and one in Peru. Geological Survey reported at magnitude 6.8, killed at least 15 people and injured more than 445 others.
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