Ecuadorian daily El Telégrafo reported this story in an article penned by journalist Gorka Castillo.
Manta is the country’s main port, and the earthquake has severely affected both the housing buildings as well as the administration, commercial, and communications buildings. For example, the international airport’s control tower collapsed in the quake.
The visit of these five Baque engineers is the result of an invitation the Ecuadorian Ministry of Urban Development and Housing,Miduvi, extended to them, and there they have analyzed the situation of sixty official buildings, from hospitals to schools, institutional headquarters and even shopping centers
During the ten days they were in that area of Ecuador, they also checked buildings, catalogued the post-quake situation, and offered several workshops to recruit architects and engineers in that country.
During their stay, which happened in May, they also experienced an aftershock that was 6.8 on the Richter scale, and lasted 97 seconds.
El Telégrafo – 12/10/2016 – Ecuador
Ingenieros vascos evaluaron las heridas del sismo
Un cielo claro y azul, como el que recibió aquel miércoles 11 de mayo a los 5 voluntarios de la División de construcción sostenible de la empresa vasca Tecnalia a su llegada a Manta, es algo que no olvidarán jamás. Pero a medida que se adentraron en el centro de la ciudad se dieron cuenta de que todo era un espejismo. El terremoto del 16 de abril de magnitud 7,8 había instalado en las calles una calma urdida de cataclismo. Una visión sobrecogedora para quienes habían llegado a Ecuador con la misión de elaborar un diagnóstico de las heridas urbanísticas provocadas por un terremoto que amagó con devolver el país a la edad de piedra.
