Desperate quake families praying for miracles

EARTHQUAKE-stricken Ecuador faced the grim reality of recovering more bodies than survivors as rescue efforts moved into a third day yesterday and the death toll climbed to more than 400 in the poor South American country.

Praying for miracles‚ desperate family members beseeched rescue teams to find their missing loved ones as they dug through the debris of flattened homes‚ hotels and shops in the hardest-hit Pacific coastal region.

Meanwhile, President Rafael Correa, visiting the disaster zone, said the quake had inflicted between $2-billion and $3-billion (R28-billion and R43-billion) of damage on the Opec nation’s already-fragile economy.

The damage from the quake could knock between two and three percentage points off gross domestic product growth, he told reporters.

“Let’s not deceive ourselves, it’s going to be a long struggle . . . Reconstruction for years, billions [of dollars] in investment.”

In Pedernales‚ a devastated rustic beach town‚ crowds gathered behind yellow tape to watch firefighters and police sift through rubble into the night.

The town’s soccer stadium was serving as a makeshift relief centre and a morgue.

“Find my brother, please!” shouted Manuel‚ 17‚ throwing his arms up to the sky in front of a small corner shop where his younger brother had been working when the quake struck on Saturday night.

When an onlooker said recovering a body would at least give him the comfort of burying his sibling‚ Manuel yelled: “Don’t say that!”

But for Manuel and hundreds of other anxious Ecuadoreans with relatives missing‚ time was running out.

Rescue efforts would now become more of a search for corpses‚ Interior Minister Jose Serrano said.

The death toll stood at 413‚ but was expected to rise further.

The quake has injured at least 2 600 people‚ damaged more than 1 500 buildings and left 18 000 people spending the night in shelters‚ according to the leftist government.

In many isolated villages or towns struck by the quake‚ survivors struggled without water or power.