Rescuers on Tuesday raced against time in southern Ecuador to find survivors of a weekend landslide that left at least 11 people dead and more than 60 missing.
Torrential rain overnight on Sunday triggered a mudslide that buried dozens of homes and injured 30 people in the village of Alausi about 300km south of the capital, Quito, officials said.
As hopes faded of finding survivors under the rubble, rescuers with dogs and neighbors alike worked feverishly to remove debris, some with their bare hands.
Photo: AP
“My daughter is here, my granddaughter, my whole family,” Carlos Maquero said standing among the ruins, desperate for a breakthrough.
“I want you to understand the pain we’re going through,” the 40-year-old merchant said.
The same region was hit by an earthquake just over a week earlier in which 15 people were killed.
There is a “buildup of tonnes and tonnes of earth,” making it difficult to find survivors, firefighter Fernando Yanza said.
Decreasing oxygen was “the main problem” facing those still trapped, said Yanza, who had been digging down through 4m of mud looking for signs of life.
“As you dig, it becomes more dangerous,” because the ground becomes less stable, he added.
Firefighter Adriana Guzman said that removing all the rubble was nearly impossible, “and truly what is found, if it is found, will be bodies.”
The mudslide’s death toll had grown to at least 11 with 67 missing, the Ecuadoran Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) said in an update on Tuesday after four bodies were recovered.
“We feel powerless not being able to do anything,” said Carmen Quiroz, whose sister-in-law was buried along with several others, including infants, under the mud.
Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso on Monday night visited Alausi in Chimborazo Province where he was met with jeers of “Lasso out” by some who felt the tragedy could have been avoided.
Lasso held a meeting with local authorities and later wrote on Twitter that the rescue efforts would go on “as long as is necessary.”
The army is also taking part in the operation.
The government opened three shelters for those affected by the landslide, which covered an area of more than 24 hectares. More than 160 homes were damaged.
Alausi, a town of about 45,000 people surrounded by green hills, also saw several public buildings hit by the deluge, which damaged roads and closed schools.
“We are afraid that there will be another mudslide and that we will be left with nothing,” 65-year-old resident Carmen Gavilanez said as a light rain fell on Alausi.
The story of Jacob, a black labrador desperately looking for his masters buried under the landslide, has gone viral on social networks. The dog sniffs, digs among the rubble and howls.
According to local media, only two members of the family were saved. Neighbors who recognized the dog dressed him in a green T-shirt to identify him.
The area affected by Sunday’s disaster had been in a designated yellow alert risk zone since February following other landslides.
After months of heavy rains, the government last week declared a two-month state of emergency in 13 of the country’s 24 provinces, allowing economic resources to be redistributed to affected areas.
Since the start of the year, heavy rains in Ecuador had caused the deaths of 22 people, destroyed 72 homes and damaged more than 6,900 residences before Sunday’s landslide, the SNGR said.
In January last year, 17 hours of torrential rain caused a dam to collapse, with the resulting flooding killing 28 people in Quito and injuring 52 more.
Crowds in Bangladesh are flocking to snap photographs with an unlikely social media star — an albino buffalo with flowing blond hair nicknamed “Donald Trump” that is due to be sacrificed within days. Owner Zia Uddin Mridha, 38, said his brother named the 700kg bull over its flowing helmet of hair resembling the signature look of the US president. “My younger brother picked this name because of the buffalo’s extraordinary hair,” he said at his farm in Narayanganj, just outside the capital, Dhaka. Mridha said that a constant stream of curious visitors — social media fans, onlookers and children — have come throughout
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
HOTTER: While Indians are accustomed to summer heat, climate change has caused northwestern India to warm faster than other parts of the country, an academic said Roads and markets have emptied during afternoons and some farmers have switched to nighttime work to avoid scorching temperatures as a heat wave grips large parts of India. The India Meteorological Department forecast maximum temperatures for yesterday of about 45°C in the capital, New Delhi, where authorities have opened temporary “cooling zones” to help people cope. The weather department warned that conditions would likely persist across several northern regions in the coming days, with temperatures staying well above seasonal averages. Authorities urged people to stay indoors during the hottest hours and take precautions against heat-related illnesses. India declares a heat wave whenever maximum temperatures
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
RSS