EARTHQUAKE IN ECUADOR
Situation Report No. 2
Event Date: April 16, 2016 18:58
Date of Report: April 17, 2016 11:00
I.
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
II.
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 nonstructural 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
OVERVIEW OF THE SITUATION
●
●
●
The main earthquake occurred on April 16th at 18:58pm (local time) with a
magnitude of 7.8 MW and a depth of 20 km. It was preceded by another event with
a magnitude of 5.0, and followed by multiple aftershocks felt especially in the
epicentral area.
The provinces of the Pacific Coast of Ecuador: Esmeraldas, Manabi, Guayas, Santo
Domingo de los Tsachilas, as well as those of the andean area such as Pichincha,
Azuay, Bolívar, among other areas, reported damages to homes and buildings,
mainly in the cities of Manta, Portoviejo, Montecristi, Santo Domingo and Quito. In
the city of Guayaquil, a pedestrian bridge fell over the Americas Avenue. In
addition, it is reported that several cities in Colombia were also affected, including
the city of Cali.
The information collected so far reflects the difficulties in access and
communications in certain areas. The number of the injuries and deaths is expected
to increase. Media are reporting significant damage to infrastructures in the city of
Pedernales based on information from the Mayor. PAHO’s staff reached the city of
Pedernales less than 24 hours after the earthquake and confirmed that
approximately 80% of the city is destroyed.
Health Situation:
Province of Manabí, Portoviejo Community:
The Verdi Cevallos Hospital is saturated due to increased demand for emergency care. The
hospital has not suffered any structural damage but a water leak occurred after the rupture
of pipes that partially flooded the ground floor of this hospital. Patients are being evacuated
to a nearby hospital in Portoviejo. A mobile care center will be installed in the ECU-911
(Emergency Operations Center) located in this city. Difficulties in accessing roads and for
health personnel to provide support have been reported.
Guayaquil:
Damage has been reported to infrastructure in some commercial areas, fall of a pedestrian
bridge, and partial damage of the ECU-911 (Emergency Operations Center). The temporary
disruption in the airport ended and it is currently operational.
Pedernales:
Estimated population of 50,000 people, damage to infrastructure and collapse of a large
number of dwellings and several hotels have been reported. This is currently the most
affected area. The health clinic is fully operational but may need staff rotation due high
demand of services.
Access to Affected Regions:
Multiples roads have been
The Aloag - Santo Domingo road is partially operational between 12h00 and 18h00 hours.
III.
RESPONSE AND NEEDS
Health Sector Response

















The entire country’s Health Network is on high alert
The provincial emergency operations committees are collecting information and
coordinating emergency assistance.
The Ministry of health is activated and coordinating with the national COE. The MoH
spokesperson is Mr. Santiago Tarapues.
The Ministry of Health reported the following actions:
Mobilization of early responders in: Esmeraldas, Eloy Alfaro, Atacames, Muisne,
Quininde, San Lorenzo, Rio Verde
Evacuation and referral of patients of hospitals in areas with involvement of public and
private networks
Deployment of the mobile hospital “2” from Ambato to Portoviejo, with 96 officers and
all medical specialties.
Deployment of a surgical mobile unit from Azuay and Chimborazo to Manta.
Mobilization of the Mobile Surgical Hospital of the armed forces from Riobamba to
Pedernales, for which the MSP provides specialized doctor from zone # 3 to meet the
requirement of health services
Activation and air mobilization of 5 medical response teams (Emergentologists,
Traumatologists and surgeons) from the zone # 9 of the MSP and 5 of the Ecuadorian
Institute of Social Security (IESS) towards affected areas
Mobilization of 60 doctors of the Farmer’s Social Security to Portoviejo and Manta
Doctors of Quevedo and El Empalme the joint mobilization, to give attention to the
IESS Hospital of Santo Domingo
Activation and mobilization of 3 rapid response teams – Damage and Needs
Assessment from the MoH, 2 of the IESS and 4 from the Ecuadorian Red Cross, to the
affected areas
Two teams of structural evaluators and personnel from hospitals and first level of care
to assess the affected health facilities
Mobilization of 12 ambulances of basic and advanced life support: 1 MSP, 10 IES, 3
firefighters from Quito, 4 Ecuadorian Red Cross, and 1 firefighters Santo Domingo
Quito hospitals are being requested to prepare space and beds in order to transfer
patients to Quito.
Contingency plans was activated in Quito hospitals for receipt patients referral
PAHO-WHO Actions:

PAHO Country Office (CO) activated its emergency response planning including its
internal special emergency procedures and is fully assisting the National EOC and
Health EOC and working on information management.

Special Emergency Procedures

Two Members of the PAHO CO were deployed to the province of Manabi to perform an
field assessment

Five experts of the Regional Response Team from Washington, Panama, Colombia
and Peru, were deployed to Ecuador to support Emergency Management, structural
and non-structural assessment of health facilities, coordination of Emergency Medical
teams, damage and needs assessment, and supplies management and logistics.
Needs:



Due to the difficulties of access to some health facilities, additional support may be
needed to transfer patients between health facilities and to major cities
Registry of persons and patients treated in health facilities.
Consolidate information on damage and needs assessment
State of the Health Network as of April 17, 2106 02:50am
Province
Community
Preliminary Information
Manabí
Portoviejo
Bahia Hospital reported walls cracks, is still functional,
Verdi Cevallos Hospital is without power or communications
Manta
IESS Hospital of Manta collapsed
Pedernales
Significant collapse of infrastructure was reported in general, up to a
80% (preliminary data from the ECU-911 Portoviejo)
Chone
Chone Hospital collapse, patients referred to private clinics
B Caraquez
Collapsed Hospital (Preliminary data Source: media in which Mayor
was quoted)
Esmeraldas
Information Pending (PI)
Atacames
PI
Muisne
PI
Pichincha
Quito
Enrique Garcés, Carlos Andrade Marín, San Francisco, and Eugenio
Espejo Hospitals, reporting minor non-structural damages
Guayas
Guayaquil
Pedestrian Bridge collapsed on the Av.Las Americas
Esmeraldas
Note: The damage assessment is currently underway by the national authorities. Where information is marked as PI
(Information Pending), this means that the country or the health counterpart has not yet been able to collect such information; it
does not mean that there is no damage at this time.
IV.
COORDINATION
●
Operations in Portoviejo are being coordinated from the ECU-911
●
PAHO Country Office (CO) is coordinating with the National and Health EOCs and
has dedicated staff 24/7 for this task
●
PAHO’s CO crisis committee in Ecuador and PAHO”s Emergency Operations
Center are activated.
●
Members of the Regional Response Team have been deployed to support
Emergency Management, structural and non-structural assessment of health
facilities, coordination of Emergency Medical teams, damage and needs
assessment, and supplies management and logistics
●
International Medical Teams coordination cell is activated and awaiting requests
from the national health authorities, the OSSOC is being informed.
●
Coordination with neighboring countries is being carried out and available
information is shared in the event that the mobilization of international assistance is
required.
●
The humanitarian country team is in coordination with the national authorities who
may request international assistance.in the coming hours or days.
Sources: MOH, National Situation Room, PAHO CO Ecuador; PDC, Redhum, OCHA