CALACALI-LA INDEPENDENCIA HIGHWAY, Ecuador – Ecuadorans scrambled Sunday to rescue survivors of a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 235 people, collapsed buildings and buckled roads along the country’s Pacific Coast.
The quake, which struck just before 7 p.m. Saturday, was Ecuador’s worst since 1979, and it injured at least 1,500 people, the government said.
Rescuing people from the rubble of destroyed buildings was the immediate priority, President Rafael Correa, who was rushing back from a visit to Italy, said on Twitter.
“The whole country is mobilizing,” Correa said, adding that he will land directly in the hard-hit town of Manta on Sunday evening.
The coastal tourist town of Pedernales was “destroyed” the president said.
“We’re trying to do the most we can, but there’s almost nothing we can do,” the town’s mayor, Gabriel Alcivar, told the Associated Press.
A state of emergency was declared in six provinces.
Several major roadways remained closed Sunday because of the quake and concerns about possible landslides. Others were set to close at sunset.
Local radio stations urged calm, while photos posted on social media showed coastal roads broken into pieces. Nearly 200 aftershocks rumbled through the country overnight.
Residents in coastal residents spent the night in the streets away from structures because of fears of further damage from aftershocks, according to local news media. Schools in the worst-hit provinces would not hold classes until further notice.
The Esmeraldas oil refinery, key to the oil producer’s economy, halted output after the quake.
A bridge in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, collapsed after the quake. Other bridges throughout the country were undergoing safety checks.
About $300 million was available for relief efforts, the government said.
Residents who were evacuated from coastal towns because of fears of a tsunami would be allowed to return to their homes, said Vice President Jorge Glas, who visited disaster sites Sunday.
“No Ecuadoran is alone,” Glas tweeted. “We will come out of this emergency stronger.”
Residents should not enter areas with rubble to gather possessions, the vice president told journalists in a news conference.
The attorney general’s office would oversee the return of victims’ bodies to their families, the national police said.
