Then he said the same thing in English ' Our plane is being diverted to Quito because the Guayaquil airport is closed, There has been an Earthquake'. PERIOD!
Nothing else, no more news about where, intensity whatever. We had no idea whether we still had a home, friends, country. Once we landed in Quito and were able to use our phones, I texted our friends back in Salinas as well as Eddie who was to pick us up at the airport. Our friends in Salinas let us know all was well- no serious damage in our home town- but a lot of shaking for almost a full minute. We also talked to Eddie and told him to go home, we had no idea when we would return to Guayaquil.
The passengers who had been scheduled to go to Quito got off the plane, the remainder stayed behind. After approximately 1 hour, we were told to fasten seat belts, we were on our way back to Guayaquil. So instead of our 8PM+ landing, we arrived back at approximately 11PM. After getting a taxi to take us back to Salinas, we arrived at our condo after 2AM- a very long day.
Walking into our condo we were a little worried as to what we would find- toppled over TV? speakers (Uwe's worst nightmare)? but all we found was our large plant down across the hallway and all our kitchen drawers open! Absolutely nothing else- we were so lucky.
The next morning we read the news. Many towns several hundred kilometers north of us had extensive damage- 50 to 80% of buildings collapsed, a total of over 600 dead- an enormous human tragedy.
The Cruz Roja Salinas sent a truck with supplies, water, mattresses, food, the next day, Sunday, with the help of the Salinas Yacht Club to the epicenter of the quake near Pedernales. For the next week we gathered funds from friends in the USA, Canada and Salinas. We received a total of $2535 to our local Cruz Roja and spent many days buying food, medical supplies, diapers , water etc for the next truckload. As well, many friends from Salinas shopped and donated- we bought out most of Supermaxi!
Family boxes of supplies ready to ship
Packing the 2nd truck- the local army base helped
A third truck will also be going soon with the remainder of the donations.
But not only Cruz Roja in Salinas sent help. The 'Church on the Beach', the Municipality of Salinas and many local restaurants including Luccy's, gathered food and supplies and sent help. The whole town pulled together for our fellow Ecuadorians!
Here is a short story of the situation a few days after the earthquake:
A month has now passed and international relief has come plus most places are now in the process of clean-up and hopefully soon, re-building. However we are still experiencing some huge after-shocks which are causing even more devastation in the affected areas.
In Salinas, we have many refugees of these areas that have local families here. Our Cruz Roja Salinas is again involved in providing help with housing and school supplies for displaced children.
Two families with 7 children are being helped with the completion of additional rooms in their family's house. They need a roof, windows, toilet, sink, mattresses, all of which are being donated by volunteers of Cruz Roja Salinas.
It will take a long time, maybe years, for Ecuador to get over the economic impact this disaster has brought on this wonderful country. Hopefully tourism will not suffer too much since only a small portion of Ecuador was actually affected.
But people are already celebrating rebuilding in some of the terremoto areas.
Has this soured our desire to live here? Absolutely not. The fault line that caused this earthquake and many others throughout history, runs right through The Rockies including Vancouver, Oregon, California and all along the Andes mountains. Are people leaving California because of this?
So no, we are here to stay!
