State of emergency declared after 233 killed in Ecuador earthquake

GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR, APRIL 17: The death toll from a powerful earthquake that shook Ecuador’s northwestern coast soared to 233 Sunday and hundreds more were wounded, the nation’s president said. Ecuador was in a state of emergency Sunday after the magnitude-7.8 earthquake flattened buildings and ravaged towns Saturday just before 7 p.m. local time (8 p.m. ET). “Thank you to the whole world for solidarity,” President Rafael Correa said on Twitter after announcing 233 people were killed in the quake, which was a huge leap from an earlier death toll of 77. “Our infinite love to the families of the dead,” Correa said on Twitter, while cutting short a trip to Italy to return home. Correa declared a national emergency, and said the tremblor was the strongest quake to hit Ecuador since 1979. He warned people to be careful to avoid fallen debris and poles and said some areas had lost power. States of emergency were declared for the provinces of Esmeraldas, Los Rios, Manabi, Santa Elena, Guayas and Santo Domingo. The quake was strongly felt in country’s capital of Quito, around 100 miles away. Glas said 10,000 military troops and 3,500 police have been dispatched to the affected areas. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said five helicopters and over 80 buses were ferrying 4,000 police to the quake zone. Authorities said landslides were making it difficult for emergency workers to reach the towns hardest hit by the earthquake. “We’re trying to do the most we can, but there’s almost nothing we can do,” said Gabriel Alcivar, mayor of Pedernales, a town of 40,000 near the quake’s epicenter, according to the Associated Press. Alcivar pleaded for authorities to send earth-moving machines and emergency rescue workers as dozens of buildings in the town were flattened, trapping residents among the rubble. He said looting had broken out amid the chaos but authorities were too busy trying to save lives to re-establish order. “This wasn’t just a house that collapsed, it was an entire town,” he said. The country’s Geophysics Institute in a bulletin described “considerable damage” in the area of the epicenter and in Guayaquil. The quake’s epicenter was 16 miles south-southeast of the coastal town of Muisne, located on the country’s northwestern coast, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The quake was recorded at a depth of about 12 miles. One person was killed when an overpass collapsed and crushed a car in the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, located 200 miles to the south of Muisne. Another occupant of the car survived and was taken to a hospital, authorities said. -Agencies