Authorities in Ecuador have raised the death toll from the country’s devastating earthquake to 525 and warned that the figure may still rise significantly. More than 200 people are missing.
The numbers killed could surpass the totals from two of the most lethal quakes of the past decade, in Chile and Peru. On Wednesday the national prosecutors office raised the number of people killed from the previous official toll of 507 and said there were at least 11 foreigners among the dead. Of the 525 victims, 15 remained unidentified, none of whom were thought to be foreign.
Fresh tremors are still rattling the country in the aftermath of the 7.8-magnitude quake, with a 6.1-magnitude aftershock recorded overnight by the US Geological Survey, which said the tremor was centred offshore, 15 miles west of Muisne.
Rescuers and medics from Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Spain and other countries are continuing the search for survivors with sniffer dogs and probes that detect breathing. Though hope is fading with every hour, there have been breakthroughs. At least five people were rescued alive on Tuesday morning in Manta.
Pablo Cordova was pulled out after 36 hours trapped beneath the hotel where he worked in Portoviejo. He had drunk his own urine and desperately preserved his mobile phone battery, hoping signal would soon be available again.
He called his wife on Monday and was then found by rescuers. She had already purchased a casket for him. “They were organising the funeral, but I’ve been reborn,” Cordova told the Associated Press. “I will have to give that coffin back because I still have a long way to go before I die.”
The US pledged to send relief experts and $100,000 (£70,000) in assistance. Ecuador’s president, Rafael Correa, said he estimated the quake had caused about $3bn in damage, equating to 3% of the country’s GDP. “It’s going to be a long battle,” he said. The country’s economy is already suffering from falling petrol prices.
While aid workers continue to search for survivors, authorities have begun shifting their attention to the monumental clear-up of rubble and debris, and restoring electricity and water supplies.
More than 1,500 buildings have been destroyed and about 20,000 people made homeless. In the seaside village of Bahía de Caráquez residents estimated that 75% of the homes had collapsed.
Despite government promises that 195 tonnes of food, clothing and other emergency supplies have been sent to the affected area, residents of Portoviejo told the Guardian they had been sleeping outside in makeshift camps, with no water, guarding their ruined homes against looters. Richard Mejía, a municipal government worker, and his neighbours have slept in the yard near their homes on mattresses under black plastic sheeting.
“Not one bottle of water, nothing,” Mejía said of government aid. He complained that residents had been told to collect supplies from the city airport, two miles from town. “How are we supposed to get there and back? There is no transportation. I can’t believe that the government is not prepared for an emergency like this,” he said.
