Photo Credit: Galeria del Ministerio de Defensa del Perú
As of this writing, the death toll from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador has risen to 350. That number is expected to go even higher. More than 2,000 are estimated to have been injured. (UPDATE 21 Apr16: The death toll has risen to near 600, with nearly 7,000 injured).
The quake struck Saturday, April 16th, 2016, a few minutes shy of 7:00pm CDT on the northwest coast of Ecuador, near the town of Pedernales. Towns and villages up and down the coast have been ravaged, and the area around the city of Portoviejo especially hit hard.
HHI has deployed an advance team to Ecuador.
Hours after the quake struck, an advance team for HHI was on the way, with the team lead arriving Sunday night. The team will be working within the greater disaster relief effort coordinating our efforts, managing logistics and determining the best way HHI can provide aid.
Once that determination is made, we could deploy a Disaster Response Team, a skilled cadre of medical professionals – doctors, nurses, paramedics – that can provide first aid and trauma care in rough conditions.
The DRT is designed to be self-sufficient and deploys with nearly everything it needs. A team like this was sent in shortly after the Nepal earthquake in April 2015, hiking into the Himalayas to reach remote communities.
HHI responded, ready to help people in need.
Please support our efforts to help in all times of disaster.
