“Dude, why is that wine bottle dancing on the table.” A Canadian friend said as we were hanging out in the lobby of my hotel near the Quito airport.
The quake was just powerful enough to be felt but that’s about it in Quito. The bottle danced but didn’t fall over.
The lights flickered, then came back on.
And that was it.
A little tremor, I thought, and back to business as usual glad I wasn’t going to have to work without electricity (it really sucks when you have a hotel, and its so rare the power goes out here I don’t even have a generator).
I had felt earthquakes before, in southern California and other small ones since i had moved to Quito 3 years ago, but this one, while mild and no biggie so I thought, felt different.
It lasted a little longer than normal (like 20 seconds) and felt kind of “wavy” like we were riding gentle ocean waves. The other quakes i have felt were more 1-3 second jolts making the windows snap (but not crack).
Anyway, my area (Quito) didn’t have any visible effects, but obviously the central Ecuador coast has been hit hard as I’m sure you’ve seen in the news.
Here’s an update on the road situation nationwide:
Over the last few days the highways connecting the highlands to the coast from Aloag-Santo Domingo and Latacunga-Mana have been closed due to landslides. As of today, APR 19 they are both open, but before traveling them inquire to be sure.
The road Chillanes-Bucay is still closed.
The road connecting El Carmen – Flavio Alfaro is now partially open (one lane only).
The outlet road connecting El Matal to Jama is closed.
Other roads closed within the past 24 hrs that now report to be at least partially open for transit:
Highways connecting San Vicente-Jama-Pedernales, Puerto Cayo-Jipijapa, PortoViejo-Crucita.
The roads connecting Guayaquil to Cuenca were unaffected, assume if not listed here the roads nationwide are in fact OPEN.
Overall: I’d say trying to navigate the central coastal Ecuador realty from Pedernales-Bahia-Chone-Portoviejo for now is best avoided if possible, at best long traffic wait times are probable and at worst the roads may be re-closed deemed un-passable on a moments notice.
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