Magnitude 6.7 Quake Ecuador; Minor Injuries, Light Damage Reported

Editor’s Comment: Notice this is occurring almost one month after the huge 7.8 magnitude quake on April 16, it’s just off by 2 days.

A magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Ecuador’s coast overnight on Wednesday, causing minor injuries and light damage in the same region where a 7.8 tremor killed more than 650 people last month.

The quake on Wednesday cut electricity in some coastal areas and sent people running into the streets as far away as the highland capital of Quito, witnesses said.

President Rafael Correa said the epicenter was the fishing village of Mompiche on the Pacific coast, about 368 km (229 miles) from Quito.

“There are some light injuries because people ran out, or bumped into things,” Correa said on state television, adding there were also some minor damage mainly to infrastructure already hit by the April disaster.

There was no tsunami warning.

The April 16 earthquake, Ecuador’s worst in nearly seven decades, flattened buildings along the coast.

As well as the fatalities, it also injured more than 6,000 people, left nearly 29,000 homeless, and caused an estimated $2 billion in damage, according to the government’s latest tally.

Correa described Wednesday’s tremor as another aftershock from the April quake. “Despite the alarm and the scare and the possibility of new damage … it’s normal, you expect aftershocks for two months after,” he said. – Reuters