Ecuador Quakes Kill 5; Oil Pipeline Damage Cuts Off Major Source of Income

QUITO, Ecuador — The government declared a state of emergency in three provinces Friday and suspended petroleum exports--Ecuador’s major source of foreign exchange--because of damage from two earthquakes that killed at least five people.

Twelve people were missing after the Thursday night temblors that shook a mountainous region along the Ecuador-Colombia border, cutting power lines, damaging large buildings and shantytown homes and sending frightened residents running into the streets, officials said.

Authorities said the quakes caused landslides from El Reventador, a volcano 100 miles from Quito, to settle in the Coca River. The dirt formed temporary dams that backed up the water, threatening to flood nearby towns. Jose Egred of Ecuador’s Geophysical Institute said that local radio reports linking the quakes to an eruption of the volcano were incorrect.

President Leon Febres Cordero declared a state of emergency in the provinces of Imbabura and Carchi in the north and Napo in the east.

Pipeline Disappears

A vital oil pipeline was ruptured and officials suspended oil exports. An energy ministry spokesman said a 25-mile-long stretch of the country’s trans-Andean oil pipeline “virtually disappeared.”

Repair of the pipeline, which carries petroleum from wells in eastern Ecuador over the Andes Mountains to the country’s Pacific coast ports, could take “weeks and even months,” the spokesman said.

The quakes also damaged natural gas and gasoline pipelines from the coast to Quito, the capital, and other mountain cities, forcing authorities to ration those products.

Authorities said they recovered the bodies of five victims Friday, including two people killed in the town of Baeza. Two children died in Cayambe, 50 miles north of Baeza, and another person died in Ibarra, authorities said..

Epicenters in Andes

The epicenters of the quakes were in the Andes about 70 miles northeast of Quito, said Russ Needham, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Society at the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

The first quake, registering 6 on the Richter scale, hit at 8:55 p.m. Thursday, Needham said. The second, stronger quake, measuring 6.8, struck at 9:11 p.m., jolting Ecuador and parts of Colombia.

Quito’s Polytechnic School reported that there were more than 300 aftershocks, many of which could barely be felt, Thursday night and Friday. The school said the quakes’ epicenter was about 10 miles west of the Reventador.

In Quito, numerous buildings were damaged and were evacuated, including a hospital. Authorities suspended public events through the weekend because of damage to structures.

Member of OPEC

Ecuador, a country of 9 million people straddling the Equator, is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and usually exports 200,000 barrels of oil a day, which accounts for 62% of its export income.

The country already was hard hit by the slump in world oil prices and in February did not make an interest payment on its $7 billion foreign debt.

The Ecuadorean quakes followed a more powerful earthquake, registering at least 7.0 on the Richter scale, which rocked northern Chile early Thursday. The Chilean quake caused power disruptions and minor damage but no casualties, authorities said.