The number of deceased and a missing woman rose to 28, as a result of the flood that affected the neighborhood La Gasca, located in the north of Quito, on January 31.
This Saturday, February 5, the Quito Emergency Operations Committee (COE) gave details of the work undertaken in the so-called ground zero, with the aim of cleaning the area and continuing the search for possible missing persons in the rubble.
The mayor of Quito, Santiago Guarderas, reported that the deceased person was in critical condition in one of the capital’s hospitals, bringing the number of human losses to 28.
Fernando Vaca, chief of operations of the National Police of the Metropolitan District of Quito, explained that last Friday they received an alert from the relatives of a 38-year-old woman who is missing, so the search efforts will continue.
According to official figures, 52 people are reported injured, 10 hospitalized, 4 were discharged, and one more person is still in critical condition in one of the hospital centers.
Municipality of Quito declares a state of emergency in the area affected by the flood
55 affected houses were found, 27 were declared uninhabitable, another 7 collapsed and 14 enclosures also collapsed.
In total, there are 555 people affected, belonging to 160 families. Materially, 37 vehicles were affected, 22 motorcycles, poles, and an electrical substation.
According to Guarderas, next Tuesday the recovery plan of the affected area, in which the actions to be taken and the amount of the economic losses will be determined, and with it, how much is required to start with the recovery.
This Sunday the COE will meet again to hear a report on the material and human losses left by this flood.
This plan is expected to be announced on Tuesday, which will propose mechanisms to respond to the tragedy with respect to the affected people, homes and businesses.
This will make it possible to establish an estimated amount of the losses, in order to know how much the total economic resources that will be required for recovery will amount to.
Guarderas confirmed that the Eugenio Espejo zonal administration decided to declare the license for the operations of the Urkupamba Cemetery Projectlocated on the slopes of Pichincha.
Zonal administration of the Municipality of Quito extinguishes the planning license for the Urkupamba ash heap
“A license regarding Urkupamba was declared extinguished. (…) The licenses that had been granted without compliance with the regulations by the previous administration are no longer valid”, Guarderas emphasized.
The zonal administrator of the Eugenio Espejo North Zone of the District issued a resolution on February 4, with which the project’s Metropolitan Urban License (LMU) was extinguished, arguing that it is located in an ecological protection area.
The capital municipality reported in an official statement that this license had been granted in June 2020, in the administration of the former mayor George Yunda.
Meanwhile, this Saturday, hundreds of people moved to the La Gasca and La Comuna neighborhoods to collaborate with the cleaning work, in a so-called ‘Megaminga’. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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