Around 8:00 in the evening on Saturday,
April 16, we were sitting in the living room in the house we rent in
Puerto Lopez, Ecuador, watching television. As happens about every
few weeks in this part of the Ring of Fire, the house started
shaking. Usually, we look up for a second, and it stops. This time,
it didn't stop. We got up and walked outside. I mean, the house
we're renting is made of block and concrete. If the ceiling starts
falling, it's not going to be some two by fours and drywall. It's
going to be big chunks of concrete, and I didn't want that stuff
falling on my head. I'd rather take my chance with the ground
opening up and swallowing me, which is much less likely than getting
killed by falling concrete. As we were walking out the door, the
electricity went off. That's the first time we've lost electricity
from an earthquake. We lose electricity frequently, but the
earthquakes usually aren't strong enough to knock anything loose.
The only other large earthquake I've
ever experienced was in Kentucky, back in 1980. That one was
reminiscent of this one. It lasted a good long while, and things were
shaking pretty good. There was one major difference. In Kentucky,
when we went outside to see what was happening, we could no longer
feel the ground shake. I was expecting that same sensation. Wrong! I
could feel the ground shaking so much that I felt like I was on
roller skates!
Soon after getting outside, as I was
passing under the tree to get into an open spot, a little dark ball
dropped to my feet. When I bent down, I saw that it was Blue, the
Amazon parrot that lives in the courtyard. Blue's flight feathers
have recently been clipped, so he can't fly. Apparently, the shaking
knocked him out of his tree. When he jumps down, he flaps his wings
to slow the fall. This time, he just fell like a lump. As a general
rule, he's Bruce's buddy. He only comes to me if I'm holding food.
This was different, though. When I put my hand down, he came running
to it. His claws dug into my hand for dear life!
When the ground finally stopped
shaking, I walked toward our neighbor's house to see if they were
okay. It was dark, and I didn't have a flashlight with me, but I
could hear the sobbing before seeing anyone. The family of four were
in the courtyard. Dad was holding the toddler wrapped in a towel.
Mom was clutching the 7-year-old and crying. The girls were very
subdued. I asked if all was okay and put my arms out. Mom and
daughter ran into them, just terrified. Blue headed up to my
shoulder, and I hugged the girls and soothed them as much as I could.
Dad explained that it was Mom's first major earthquake, and
obviously, the kids had not experienced anything like it before. The
toddler was clutching Dad for dear life and looking around with great
big eyes. I was scared, but these folks were terrified, so I had to
keep my cool. It was about that time that I realized I hadn't put on
shoes, and that the gravel in the courtyard was painful on the feet.
We all came to our house with Dad
stopping in theirs to pick up some clothes for the toddler.
Apparently, she was getting a bath when the earthquake hit. Dad left
Mom and the kids with us and went to check on the other folks in the
apartments, who were all fine. After getting the baby dressed and
calming some herself, Mom went out to help Dad. We gave the girls
some cookies and played hand figures against the flashlight shone
against the wall. A little bit later, Mom and Dad came back to get
the kids and go back to their house, and we put Blue back outside in
his tree (after he pooped down my back).
Within about 30 minutes, Dad was
knocking on our door again. Apparently, people in low-lying areas
close to the beach were being advised to go uphill in case of a
tsunami. It was a two-hour window. So, Bruce and I changed into our
street clothes from our pajamas. I went to the neighbors' house to
see if they were ready to go. They had grabbed a change of clothes
each and some water. The 7-year-old had packed her cat in her
backpack. Just before we were getting in the car, the cat found he
could open the zipper. So, I decided that the backpack would stay
with me so I could hold the zipper closed. The last thing we needed
was for that cat to get loose inside a little Chevy Spark holding six
people! When we got up the hill, and the toddler realized the cat
was in the bag (yes, pun intended), she got very upset that we didn't
also bring her pet chickens! I finally got her convinced that there
probably wouldn't be a tsunami, and that we were only up here “just
in case”, so her chickens would be fine. She felt good knowing that
we had left Blue behind, too, so obviously, the gringos don't think
there's any reason for concern.
While we were on the hill, we learned
that the earthquake was a 7.8, centered in Esmeraldes Province, which
is just north of our province, Manabi, and reaches to the Colombian
border. We also learned that power had gone out for the entire
country of Ecuador, and that there was major damage in Quito,
Guayaquil, and the airport tower had crashed down in Manta. There
were also claims that they were predicting another, larger quake
sometime in the night. We had no way to confirm any of those claims
with no internet and no radio in the Spark. After the two-hour
tsunami period was over, we went back home. There were a couple of
aftershocks that sent me sailing downstairs, but nothing major. They
were over before I got down the steps.
The electricity came back on around
2:00 a.m., but our internet wasn't working. By the time I woke up,
around 7:30 a.m., there was still no internet, but there was still
electricity, so I took a shower. I tried to call our internet
provider, but apparently, my phone had run out of minutes. Bruce and
I decided to go into town and survey the damage. We had been told of
some homes that had been destroyed in el centro and on the malecon.
While we were out, we wanted to pick up some meds he is running low
on and see if our internet provider was in the office. We decided to
start with breakfast at the Hotel Victor Hugo, hoping they had wifi
so I could let people know we were okay.
When I learned that they had had
internet and power all night, thanks to generators, I felt bad for
not having thought to go there last night. I knew there would be
several people who would be highly concerned and that there would be
some who would feel better knowing nothing had happened to us, but
the lengths some of those folks went to – tracking down other
people in Puerto Lopez or locating my daughter to see if she had any
news or making contact with random people on my friends list on
Facebook to see if anyone had any news – blew my mind. Don't get
me wrong. I don't feel like I'm alone or that few people care about
me. I'm just rather pragmatic, believing that it's natural for people
to be most concerned about that which impacts their daily lives. Boy
was I humbled! By the time I had touched base with everybody who had
messaged me, my eggs and toast were cold. And, I didn't even look at the posts on my Facebook wall or e-mails I had gotten until we had internet restored at the house!
After breakfast, we drove around town
looking at the damage. There was surprisingly little in our little
fishing village. Some, obviously, isn't going to be visible on the
outside walls or the facade of the building, but I was expecting to
see more.
The fire station had damage, but they
had it roped off and put tarps up, so I couldn't get any photos of it.
The front fell completely off of this
room. There was further damage to the building on the side walls and
probably in the back.
The church in el centro took some damage on the steeple.
Insert 968, 966
This is one of the newer hotels in
town. One whole side dropped.
Several buildings lost upper stories
like this.
Most buildings directly on the malecon,
including the beach cabanas and the new bath houses that are being
built, appeared to be left untouched.
This relatively new home sustained some
damage on the upper terraces, at least.
Now that electricity and internet have
been fully restored and I have been able to see the published accounts, we were
very, very lucky. The epicenter was about 250 miles north of our
village, and damage was extensive even further away than we are.
Since I have compared this earthquake to the one when I was growing
up in Kentucky, Bruce has checked the differences. The Kentucky quake
was a 5.2, but we were basically on top of it, making it feel like a
7 (according to reports). This one was a 7.8, but we were about 250
miles (about 400 km) away. There is also over 30 years of time
elapsed between the two. I still think my experience of the intensity
of the shake was similar. The differences were primarily that this
one was in the dark, and I knew what was happening this time.
We also recently just experienced some
minor, latent damage, though there have been some aftershocks going
on. A few minutes ago, we heard a single knock on the back door. When we
opened it up, some of the concrete decorative facade has fallen off
of the side of the rooftop terrace. We told the girls to be careful
walking around the sides of the house for the next few days. We don't
want any pieces falling off and hitting them in the head.
The girls have been clingy today and
are very thankful for how lucky we all were last night. Even Blue is
starting to settle back into normal, though he is still a little
fluffy today. He's mostly thankful for the apple!
