Photo: Santiago Piedra Silva/AFP/Getty Images
By: The opinion Posted Mar 18, 2023, 15:28 pm EDT
An earthquake of 6.5 magnitude was registered in Ecuador this Saturday at 12:12 p.m. The Geophysical Institute of the National Polytechnic School, assured that the phenomenon was recorded 29.12 km from Balao, Guayas, which It started with a slight movement that in seconds became quite strong.
The earthquake was located at a depth of 65.7 km, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which called it a “Yellow Alert” status with the potential “of deaths and economic losses related to the tremor.”
The movement could be perceived in the city of Guayaquil. In Quito, the Ecuadorian capital, it was also felt slightly. Several users of social networks mentioned that an alert arrived first on their cell phones and immediately they felt the movement of the earth, for which they chose to evacuate buildings and establish contact with their relatives.
In this regard, the National Emergency Operations Center (COEN) reported that first response units together with local authorities began the review of vulnerable areas.
According to the Risk Management Secretariat, there is a dead person in the town of Cuencawhere the facade of a house collapsed on a vehicle, of which a deceased person is reported.
For its part, the Efe agency verified that in the center of the coastal city of Guayaquil some debris fell from old houses.
The seismic wave was also felt on the north and central coast of Peru, although with less intensity. The Peruvian authority ruled out the generation of a tsunami due to the earthquake.
“The Government coordinates with the entities to assess personal and material damage, and execute the corresponding immediate actions,” the Peruvian Presidency reported in a message on Twitter.
He added that in the face of the strong earthquake, which had its epicenter in Ecuador, the Peruvian Executive expresses its “solidarity” and invites the inhabitants “on both sides of the border” to calm down.
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