I. HIGHLIGHTS
● An earthquake of 7.8 MW struck Ecuador on April 16th at 18:58 (local time), with epicenter between the city of Pedernales and the town of Cojimes, north of the Manabí province, 170 km from Quito
● 235 killed mainly in the cities of the province of Manabí Perdernales, Canoa, Bahía de Caraquez, Manta, Portoviejo, Guayaquil and Santo Domingo and 1577 injuries reported as of 11:00 am on 04-17-2016
● The Government of Ecuador has activated the National Emergency Operation Committee and the Provincial Emergency Operations Centers
● A State of Emergency has been declared for six provinces: Manabí, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Santo Domingo and Los Ríos
● The health system has been declared on high alert ● Loss of power and communications services in the affected area
● The PAHO country office is assisting the National and health EOC with personnel
● Two experts from PAHO have been deployed to the Operations Centre established in Manta.
● The Verdi Ceballos Hospital in the Portoviejo community suffered structural and non-structural damage and is partially operational; it is providing medical care to multiple patients with polytrauma
● Chone Hospital has structural collapse, patients have been referred to other health units
● The Ecuadorian Social Security Institute’s Hospital in Manta reported multi-story collapse
● Four hospitals in Quito reported minor damages, mainly non-structural, which do not impact their operations ● The Eloy Alfaro airport in the city of Manta and Carlos Concha of the province of Esmeraldas are operating at the moment
● Damage and needs assessment is underway and more impact is expected in the next few hours
● The country has moderate to good response capacity and the major cities are operational, however, support may be required for coordination, damage assessment of health facilities, water and sanitation and information management.
● The Government has mobilized its armed forces, public works personnel, firefighters, and medical teams to all affected areas, as well as a mobile hospital to the municipality (canton) of Pedernales, the most affected area.
● Some incidents of social disruption and looting have been reported in the provinces of Manabí, Guayas and Esmeraldas
