One member killed during Ecuador earthquakes
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One member of the Church was among at least three people killed Aug. 4 when twin earthquakes struck the Ecuador coast near this resort town, 130 miles southwest of Quito, collapsing more than 200 homes and buildings.
Elder Francisco J. Vinas of the Seventy and president of the South America North Area contacted the Ecuador Civil Defense and Red Cross and offered assistance from the Church, said Cesar Cacuango, a welfare official for the Church Area office in Quito.Brother Cacuango said Pres. Juan Quiroz of the Portoviejo Ecuador Stake reported the member who was killed was Eglantina Bravo Pico, 57, a mother of seven children who was serving as a counselor in the Relief Society presidency in the Reales Tamarindo Ward. She died in a hospital after sustaining head injuries during the earthquake.
Pres. Renato Maldonado of the Ecuador Guayaquil North Mission has visited the areas of damage and reported that no missionaries experienced problems, nor were any Church properties damaged.
The first quake had a magnitude of 5.7, according to Ecuador's Geophysical Institute. The second struck more than an hour later and measured 7.1, reported the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colo., according to the Associated Press. At least 30 smaller tremors followed the two quakes.
Fearing further tremors, hundreds of residents of towns in the area spent the night on soccer fields or in parks, many sleeping under tarpaulins fashioned into shelters.
When the quakes hit, the impoverished region was still recovering from massive flooding driven by the El Nino weather phenomenon earlier this year. The flooding wiped out much of the area's roads and utilities.
