earthquakes in el salvador

UPDATE:
Exactly one month after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake rocked El Salvador, another powerful temblor struck at 8:22 a.m. on Tuesday February 13, 2001.

The second quake, registering magnitude 6.6, has claimed 274 lives, according to Salvadoran officials. At least 800 people were killed in the earlier earthquake. Both earthquakes caused mudslides, cut transportation and communication lines and destroyed buildings, but Tuesday's quake hit areas that were not severely affected by the January quake. The two earthquakes have left hundreds of thousands homeless.

"Relief is going to have to be spread out even farther than it was, in terms of area and number of people," says Roney Guttierez, a CARE project manager in El Salvador.

The most recent earthquake was centered approximately 15 miles southeast of the capital, San Salvador. The National Emergency Committee (COEN) says the provinces of San Vincente, Cuscatlán and La Paz were hit hardest. Up to 90 percent of the homes in some towns were damaged.

The January earthquake was followed by thousands of aftershocks, some as strong as magnitude 5. Tuesday's temblor also has triggered hundreds of aftershocks, sparking concern that damaged buildings may still pose a threat.

BACKGROUND:
At 11:33 a.m., Saturday, January 13, 2001, a devastating earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit El Salvador. The epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Pacific Ocean, in line with the eastern coast of the province of Usulután.

Children in El Carmen, Usulután. All photos © CARE 2001.

Francisco Flores, president of El Salvador, has addressed the Salvadoran population, calling for calm and solidarity for the victims of the earthquake and pledging a coordinated effort on behalf of the government.

THE DAMAGE:
Damage assessments from both earthquakes remain incomplete. Due to the nature of earthquake damage, many of the dead are never recovered. Rough figures indicate the two earthquakes killed more than 1,000 people, injured more than 7,000 and left more than 100,000 people homeless.

In the city of Santa Tecla, located south of the capital city of San Salvador, alone, the death toll topped 300. Most victims were in the middle class residential area "Las Colinas," where a dramatic mudslide buried almost 350 homes under tons of soil and debris. Initial relief efforts focused on this community because of the enormous impact of this mudslide, yet later reports indicate similarly disastrous conditions in less accessible regions of the country.

CARE staffer Roberto Garcia stands inside the remains of the Miguel Angel Mohano's home in Lineares, Coulutel.

The Ministry of Public Health has issued warnings of potential health hazards resulting from the disaster, urging people to take necessary precaution with food and water. An early assessment of health infrastructures nationally showed that three major hospitals suffered structural damage. During the second quake, as in the first, patients were evacuated from hospital buildings following the quake because of the threat of further shocks; chronic patients are receiving attention in the streets, with disaster victims flooding in to tax already stretched resources. The Ministry has put out a call for blood donors.

Telephone and water services in and around the capital have been disrupted intermittently.

CARE'S RESPONSE:
CARE has organized an emergency committee with the mandate of managing relief efforts both within the CARE network of offices in El Salvador, international aid agencies, and other local and international nongovernmental organizations in the country. CARE has established regular contact with COEN to ensure national coordination as well.

Many of the worst affected areas are communities in which CARE already is working, so the organization is well positioned to execute a speedy and efficient response to the emergency.

Brenda Marcelo holds her 10 month old son as CARE arrives to distribute food rations in El Carmen, Usulután.

Technical teams from CARE and its partners have visited communities since Saturday afternoon assessing priority needs. CARE has been inundated by requests to coordinate resources and provide basic supplies. While the organization has the technical expertise and capacity to do this, financial support in the form of cash donations is urgently needed to fund these activities.