April 19, 2016 4:00 UTC
By: Cesar Pio Santos, HR2P
IARU-R2 EMCOR
An earthquake lashed the Pacific Coast of Ecuador on April 16, 2016 at 23:58 UTC, rated 7.8 degrees in the Richter scale.
In the early hours of Sunday, April 17, the Ecuadorian government informed that the numerous landslides that occurred after the earthquake were making access difficult for relief organizations to the communities most affected by the earthquake, such as Manta, Porto Viejo and Guayaquil, and declared a state of emergency in six coastal provinces: Esmeraldas, Los Ríos, Manabi, San-ta Elena, Guayas, and Santo Domingo.
Loss of human lives has been reported, as well as injured people, which it is expected that will increase as search and rescue activities make progress.
Specialized search and rescue teams have been arriving to Ecuador, provided by the govern-ments of several American and European countries.
Ecuadorian authorities have informed that currently, the priority is in search and rescue opera-tions, establishing communications, and delivery of water and food to the people affected. They have asked the population to contribute with donations of water, non-perishable food and flash-lights.
Radio amateurs have joined the Emergency Operations Center (COE) of Quito, the Echolink Node HC1BG‑R has remained active under the control of Gustavo Barreir, serving as the link to channel information from the affected area to the COE in Quito.
Victor Perez, HC2DR, of Radio Club Guayaquil commented on April 18: I was in Manabí yes-terday, in the Porto Viejo sector and in Manta they didnt have electricity or cellular phone. It was possible to rehabilitate the amateur radio repeater of that sector and I programmed the radios of the fire department of Manta so that they could use it to communicate their needs. There is a lot of work to do tomorrow.
The HC Net of Ecuador is operating on 7,060 kHz in HF.
More information about the earthquake in Ecuador is available in the following link:
https://twitter.com/Riesgos_Ec
Thanks for the cooperation with information and help received for this report to Ramón Santoyo, XE1KK; Cesar Brousek, OA4CLU; Eduardo Leiva, OA4BSA; Oscar Pancorvo, OA4AMN; Victor Perez, HC2DR; José A. Molina, YS1MS, and Norma Leiva, HR2NL.
73
Cesar Pio Santos HR2P
EMCOR R2
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