RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Authorities said Tuesday (1) that the death toll from a flood that hit several Quito neighborhoods has risen to 18 after the Ecuadorian capital was hit with record rainfall Monday.
The number is likely to rise as rescue and search operations continue for homes and even vehicles swept away by the waters.
General Cesar Zapata, commander of the municipality’s police, told Ecuavisa television that 14 bodies are in the coroner’s office, two more were transferred this morning and two others were rescued from the rubble.
The National Risk and Emergency Management Service recorded 16 missing, 200 affected and 42 injured.
Relatives of the missing have joined rescue efforts, shovel in hand while asking authorities for centralized information as they say they have visited morgues and hospitals in search of their loved ones without receiving answers. The flood washed away numerous homes, a police facility, a substation, power poles, and police vehicles.
RECORD RAINFALL
Quito Mayor Santiago Guarderas said that around midnight, a torrential and prolonged downpour exceeded the capacity of a water catchment basin located on a hillside and led to the floods, which hit “a sports field” where people were sitting and advanced a kilometer. There was a large group of volleyball players and fans on the court.
The landslide occurred on the slopes of the Pichincha volcano and affected the La Gasca sector in the northwest of the Ecuadorian capital. Rescue worker Cristian Rivera stated that “several of the victims were hypothermic and the mud was up to their knees.
Guarderas, meanwhile, said that rainfall last Saturday was 3.5 liters per square meter and 75 liters per square meter on Monday, while two liters per square meter was predicted. This is “a record value that we have not had since 2003,” he added.