At least 22 innocent people were killed by the heaviest rainfall to appear in Ecuador throughout the past 20 years. The capital, Quito, reportedly encountered the worst of the storm, accompanied by the deadly landslide that quickly followed. Officials say they counted 47 injured people, 22 dead bodies and failed to find a total of 20 locals during their post-storm search and rescue clean-up.
“We saw this immense black river that was dragging along everything, we had to climb the walls to escape,” Quito citizen Alba Cotacachi explained the force behind the landslide to a news reporter. He added, “I saw how the current took a man and a child. It was horrible.” The mudslide dragged various trees, cars, and parts of houses through the local streets and had reached a top speed of approximately 35mph, making it an extremely dangerous and highly fatal situation for a person to be stuck in the midst of.
Rescue squads are currently still searching the affected areas in hopes of finding the missing people they are looking for while cleaning up the remainder of scraps the dreadful storm left behind: La Gasca and La Comuna are two of the local neighborhoods that seemed to have the most damage done to them. This specific rainfall brought 75 liters of water per square meter of every area that received a part of the storm, the fullest flood to hit Ecuador in over 20 years.