ALAUSI, Ecuador (Reuters) – Families and rescue groups in Ecuador worked to find dozens of people still missing after a landslide smothered buildings and a stadium in the small city of Alausi, with the official death toll of seven expected to rise.
An avalanche of earth ploughed into Alausi, in Ecuador’s Andean Chimborazo province, on Sunday night, affecting some 163 buildings and 500 people, authorities have said.
Some 64 people were missing as of Monday night, according to Ecuador’s disaster agency, and around 32 survivors had been rescued.
Using spades, relatives dug through the dirt in spots they believe their loved ones were when the landslide hit.
“We’ve not received help, we’ve been searching since Monday, we cannot leave our relatives here in the earth,” said a tearful Sandra Caranqui, 32, on Tuesday. She said she and other family members were searching for her missing father and four siblings.
“We no longer have hope that they’re alive,” she said. “They’ve been in there for two days.”
Professional rescuers also worked through the night using digging equipment. Jorge Montanero, chief of the city of Guayaquil’s fire department rescue group, told journalists the search would go on.
“While we have even a pinch of hope and faith we will continue even though exhaustion may be greater,” he said.
“We’re going to work tirelessly.”
President Guillermo Lasso visited the area on Monday night and offered to extend the rescue efforts to find the missing.
With fears that more landslides could be triggered, the government has ordered some 600 homes be evacuated as a preventive measure, with three shelters set up to care for those affected.
The country’s disaster agency had warned of potential landslide danger for a 247-hectare (610-acre) area in Alausi in February, which included part of the zone where Sunday’s landslide hit.
That followed heavy rains that have destroyed roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. Lasso last week declared an emergency in 14 provinces due to the weather and an earthquake that shook the country on March 18.
(Reporting by Tito Correa and Karen Toro in Alausi; Writing by Oliver Griffin and Alexandra Valencia; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
