The armed forces are taking part in relief operations and transporting equipment to build temporary shelters after a dramatic landslide caused by heavy rains overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Forty-six people are missing and seven others died in southern Ecuador, in a landslide caused by heavy rains overnight from Sunday to Monday, according to an official report.
Several dozen houses were buried in the town of Alausi about 300 kilometers south of Quito, in an Andean area hit last week by an earthquake that killed 15 people, including one in neighboring Peru.
Nearly 500 people in total were affected by the flow
The landslide left 46 missing, seven dead and 23 injured, Ecuadorian authorities said Monday in a new report. Nearly 500 people in total were affected by the flow, on a neighborhood clinging to the mountain in the northeastern outskirts of the city.
Images broadcast by local media showed dozens of rescuers and civilians bustling around the debris to try to free buried people, in a ballet of ambulances with flashing lights and screaming sirens.
A massive brownish mudslide suddenly descended from the verdant mountains that surround Alausi, home to some 45,000 people. In the disaster area, survivors in tears and with tearful faces waited for news of their missing loved ones.
The area where the tragedy occurred had been on “yellow alert” since February for the risk of landslides, due to severe weather affecting the region in recent weeks.
The “Devil’s Nose”
The Chimborazo governor’s office said it was preparing food collection centers to help those affected.
For its part, the local Red Cross provided “pre-hospital care” to the victims. Residents of nearby villages also arrived in the early hours of the morning to assist in the rescue operations.
The town of Alausi is known worldwide for the “Devil’s Nose”, a steep slope through which Ecuador’s Trans-Andean railway line passes, a stretch dubbed the “most difficult train in the world” due to its dangerousness.
Since January, heavy rains have already left 22 dead and 346 homeless in the country. More than 6,900 homes were damaged and 72 were destroyed, authorities said. Some 987 incidents were caused by bad weather, such as floods and landslides.
