Rescue hopes fade as quake toll rises
Rescuers in Ecuador were losing hope yesterday of finding more survivors from an earthquake that killed nearly 500 people and dealt a shattering blow to the country’s already fragile economy.
Praying for miracles, distraught family members beseeched rescue teams to find missing loved ones as they used dogs, bare hands and excavators to hunt through debris of flattened homes, hotels and stores in the hardest-hit Pacific coastal region.
The death toll stood at 480 yesterday afternoon but was expected to rise.
The 7.8 magnitude quake, which struck on Sunday, also left 107 people missing, and injured more than 4000, according to the latest government tallies.
Supervising rescue work in the disaster zone, Ecuador’s leftist president, Rafael Correa, said the quake inflicted US$2 billion (NZ$2.85b) to $3b of damage to the oil-dependent economy and could knock 2 to 3 percentage points off growth.
‘‘Let’s not kid ourselves, it will be a long struggle. Reconstruction for years, billions [of dollars] in investment,’’ said Correa, who appeared deeply moved.
‘‘In the short term, we’re going to need tens of millions of dollars,’’ Correa added from the quake-hit town of Tarqui, donning a mask, gloves and helmet.
Growth in Ecuador’s small economy had already been forecast at near zero this year because of plunging oil revenues.
The quake, Ecuador’s worst in decades, destroyed or damaged about 1500 buildings, triggered mudslides and left some 20,500 people sleeping in shelters, according to the government.
In Pedernales, a devastated beach town, crowds gathered behind yellow tape to watch firefighters and police sift through rubble.
The town’s soccer stadium served as a relief centre and morgue. Some residents wore masks to protect themselves from the smell of bodies decomposing in the heat.
‘‘Find my brother! Please!’’ shouted Manuel, 17, throwing his arms to the sky by a corner store where his younger brother was working when the quake struck.
When an onlooker said recovering a body would at least give him the comfort of burying his sibling, he yelled: ‘‘Don’t say that!‘‘
Three priests said prayers and sprinkled holy water on bodies being hauled out of the debris of a small supermarket near Pedernales’ central square and church. The corpses of two adults and one child had already been carried out on stretchers, and firefighters, soldiers and police were still searching for a missing child.
‘‘My cousin said you could hear people yelling until yesterday,’’ said Tito Torres, 20, the son of the store’s owners, who rushed to Pedernales from Quito after the quake.
His parents managed to run out of the store before the roof partially collapsed. ‘‘This is terrible,’’ he said, adding survivors had been raiding the destroyed store for food.
Some 54 people had been rescued alive since Saturday, the government said, but time was running out.