Hopes Fade Of Finding Survivors From Ecuador Quake As Death Toll Reaches 443

Source: Reuters

Tue Apr 19, 2016 4:39pm EDT

Rescuers in Ecuador were losing hope on Tuesday of finding more survivors from an earthquake that killed nearly 450 people and dealt a shattering blow to the South American OPEC country's already fragile economy.

Praying for miracles, distraught family members beseeched rescue teams to find missing loved ones as they used dogs, bare hands and excavators to hunt through debris of flattened homes, hotels and stores in the hardest-hit Pacific coastal region.

The death toll stood at 443 but was expected to rise.

--CLIP

Supervising rescue work in the disaster zone, Ecuador's leftist President Rafael Correa said the quake inflicted between $2 billion and $3 billion of damage to the oil-dependent economy and could knock two to three percentage points off growth.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-quake-idUSKCN0XE009