Middle-east Arab News Opinion | Asharq Al-awsat

Ecuador Hit by Magnitude-6.7 Earthquake | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
Select Page
Media ID: 55351018
Caption:

A resident gestures next to a collapsed building after an earthquake struck off the Pacific coast, in Portoviejo, Ecuador, April 18, 2016. REUTERS/Henry Romero


A powerful magnitude-6.7 earthquake hit Ecuador’s coast early Wednesday near the Pacific coast area, where a 7.8 devastating tremor hit a month ago, knocking out power and killing more than 650 people.

There was no report of significant damage from Wednesday’s quake, which cut electricity in some coastal areas and sent people running into the streets as far away as the highland capital Quito, witnesses said.

The U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday that the quake’s epicenter was 35 kilometers (21 miles) from the town of Muisne. It struck shortly before 3 a.m. local time and had a shallow depth of 32 kilometers below the earth’s surface.

President Rafael Correa said there was no tsunami alert and called on residents in Quito, where some residents poured into the streets, to return to their homes. The quake was strong enough to trigger a national disaster alert, but Correa deactivated the emergency response a few hours later when local authorities reported the situation was calm.

“These sort of aftershocks are normal but that doesn’t mean they’re not scary and can cause damage,” Correa said in a televised address, adding that aftershocks of this magnitude were normal for up to two months after a major quake like the one Ecuador experienced.

The magnitude-7.8 earthquake on April 16 was Ecuador’s worst natural disaster in nearly seven decades, killing 661, leaving more than 28,000 people homeless and causing an estimated $2 billion of damage. It has been followed by hundreds of aftershocks, at least five of them including Wednesday’s which measured 6.0 or higher on the Richter scale.

Ecuador was already struggling economically before the April disaster. Correa has hiked taxes to fund the recovery but says it will take years to rebuild the beach towns and tourist hubs leveled by the quake.

Jorge Zambrano, mayor of Manta, one of the areas hit hardest by last month’s big quake, said streets were calm.

“It was a big shake and all of us were scared but there are no major problems at the moment,” said Zambrano.