Ecuador: Correa Continues Touring Areas Ravaged by Quake

According to the Ministry of Communication of the Presidency, Correa is visiting the cities of Santo Domingo and La Concordia, both located in the province of Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, in addition to El Carmen and Calceta, in Manabi, which together with Esmeraldas, are the regions most devastated by the 7.8 degree earthquake.

The president, who has been touring the disaster areas since Sunday, led a meeting of the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) in Quito yesterday to define the measures to be implemented in the recovery phase.

"The reconstruction and recovery stage come now", Correa said through his Twitter account.

The president also issued a call to identify the construction companies and local authorities that, with profit in mind, allowed buildings to be constructed that did not comply with established building standards. "They were death traps," he said.

According to the latest report from the Secretariat for Risk Management, the earthquake that occurred on April 16th destroyed 6,998 buildings and affected another 2,740, mostly in coastal towns such as Manta, Portoviejo, Pedernales, Bahia , Jama, Canoeing and Muisne.