Ecuador’s President announces state of emergency due to strong earthquake

The President of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, announced Sunday that he would declare a state of emergency to accelerate the reconstruction of property affected by the earthquake of magnitude 6.5 on the Richter scale that shook the coastal province of Guayas (southwest) on Saturday.

“We are going to declare a state of exception, without the restriction of rights, at the national level to facilitate and accelerate the public procurement of the affected structures,” said the presidentPresidentsage to the nation on the national chain.

Lasso indicated that the measure is part of a series of actions to be implemented to support the earthquake victims, which occurred at 12:12 local time on Saturday near Balao, in Guayas.

According to the Ecuadorian Government, the earthquake caused a “severe impact” in several localities of the South American country, mainly in Guayas; El Oro (south-bordering Peru), the hardest hit; and Azuay (south).

The last balance of the Secretariat of Risk Management indicated that the event has left 13 dead, 484 injured, and considerable material damage to homes, health centers, roads, and public and private property.

“The Government of Ecuador is activated on all fronts. Our objective is to take more immediate actions that will bring us back to normality”, added the presidentPresidentointing that,t the aim is to repair the damage as soon as possible.

Lasso, who during the weekend toured the affected areas, added that other complementary measures were taken to support the victims, such as the creation of a housing rental voucher.

This includes acquiring houses already built by the private sector to provide faster solutions to those who lost their homes due to the earthquake.

The last official report indicated that 90 houses were destroyed and 205 were affected by the event.

Additionally, he informed that emergency funds from multilateral organizations would be managed to provide the resources needed to address the emergency quickly.

The President saPresidenthe natural event had caused pain and committed the Government’s assistance to help those affected “in these hard moments”.

He emphasized that, after the earthquake, the Government worked on adapting temporary shelters for those who needed them, emergency kits were delivered, and the injured were mobilized to different hospitals.