Ecuador's Rainy-Season Toll Reaches 11 Dead and Nearly 49,000 Affected: Emergency Declared on Santa Cruz Island
Quito — Ecuador's National Secretariat for Risk Management (SNGR) said in a national situation report issued on November 3 that the current rainy season had, from August 28 to the early hours of November 3, produced 1,086 rain-related adverse events across all 24 provinces, leaving 11 people dead, four injured and 48,958 people directly or indirectly affected. Officials link the sustained heavy rainfall to a strengthening El Niño.
Floods accounted for about 56 percent of the events and landslides about 19 percent, the report said. The most closely watched disaster was on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos: on the night of October 30, a local weather station recorded a record 196 mm of rain in 24 hours, seasonal channels overflowed, one resident died in the Bellavista area and two people were initially reported missing in Divino Niño. About 2,760 people on the island were affected, spanning 690 families; the municipality declared an emergency and opened temporary shelters. Ecuador's government has flown more than 17 tons of humanitarian aid to the islands with the armed forces and has precautionarily closed several visitor sites.
Ecuador's mainland coast was also hit, with flooding in provinces including Guayas and multiple rivers overflowing. The national meteorological institute, INAMHI, has issued heavy-rain warnings for the islands and several regions and expects El Niño's influence to keep strengthening through November and December.
(Source: National Secretariat for Risk Management of Ecuador)
Source: National Secretariat for Risk Management of Ecuador
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：加拉帕戈斯群岛圣克鲁斯岛主要城镇 Puerto Ayora 的港口。照片 CC BY-SA 2.0，作者 Pete，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The harbour of Puerto Ayora, the main town on Santa Cruz Island in the Galápagos Islands. CC BY-SA 2.0, by Pete, via Wikimedia Commons.
