AMN / WEB DESK /
Death toll in Devastating Ecuador earthquake has gone up to 413. The 7.8-magnitude quake struck Ecuador’s Pacific coast on Saturday, and the search for survivors continues. President Rafael Correa said, the cost of rebuilding is likely to be in the billions of dollars. He said it is the biggest tragedy to hit Ecuador in the past seven decades. Some 2,000 people were injured. Funerals for some of those killed were held in Portoviejo and Pedernales, two towns that were badly hit.
The President warned that the quake will cost Ecuador billions of dollars. It comes at a time when the oil-producing country is already reeling from the slump in global crude prices. Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States, said some of the group’s rarely-used emergency funds will be unlocked and given to Ecuador to help it rebuild.