The dreams, plans and even the lives of hundreds of families were shattered in one moment — 6:58 p.m. on April 16 — when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake rocked the central coast of Ecuador.
Among the desolation and debris lay thousands of abandoned objects, shards of a lost and broken normalcy.
A portrait of two women was tossed amid the rubble on a sidewalk and stained by a tropical downpour. They embrace and smile timidly, the elder of the two crossing her arms delicately. It’s not clear if they are mother and daughter. Sisters? Friends? Are they alive, or are they among the more than 650 who died in the quake?
A white dress, adorned with sequins and gold embroidery, hung unmarked and brilliant in a room that now had no walls.
On a devastated street, a sign still welcomed guests to the Texas hotel. Behind it, a multistory building was collapsed, though the lobby itself eerily survived.
“What happened here is terrible. All the effort that it meant to build this hotel with more than 20 rooms ended in this, pure rubble,” said Michael Ortiz, who owned the lodging house. Stunningly, no one was killed. “By luck, there weren’t any tourists at that moment; they were returning from the beach, and thank God there were very few for that time of the year.”
Survivors say the number of victims could have been far higher if the quake had hit during the high season for tourism along the scenic coast.
On what had been an interior wall of a public school, a mutilated mural showed a lake a volcano and a tree labelled “love,” all now exposed to the greater world.
This April 24, 2016 photo shows the second-floor of a home damaged in a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Pedernales, Ecuador. The powerful April 16 earthquake was the worst natural disaster to befall Ecuador since a 1949 earthquake in Ambato that killed thousands. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this April 18, 2016 photo, a mannequin lies amid the rubble caused by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Portoviejo, Ecuador. The magnitude-7.8 earthquake flattened much of the Ecuadoran provincial capital of Portoviejo, leaving rescuers scrambling through the ruins, digging with their hands to find survivors. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 19, 2016 photo shows a rift in the highway caused by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Chacras, Ecuador. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along the country’s Pacific coast on a Saturday evening of April 16. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 17, 2016 photo shows sheets covering the bodies of a mother and daughter who were killed when their home collapsed on them during a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Pedernales, Ecuador. The death toll from Ecuador’s quake surpassed that of Peru’s 2007 temblor, making it the deadliest quake in South America since one in Colombia in 1999 killed more than 1,000 people. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
In this April 20, 2016 photo, a gown hangs from twisted metal as residents comb through a field of post-earthquake debris, salvaging any recyclable material, in Manta, Ecuador. Reflecting some of the desperation, residents in Manta searched through the rubble caused by the April 16 quake, no longer looking for loved ones but trying to salvage metallic objects and other items of value. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 24, 2016 photo shows a damaged snapshot on the sidewalk just outside earthquake-damaged homes in downtown Pedernales, Ecuador. As Ecuador digs out from its strongest earthquake in decades, tales of devastating loss are everywhere amid the rubble. The 7.8-magnitude April 16 earthquake left a trail of ruin along Ecuador’s normally placid Pacific Ocean coast. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
In this April 17, 2016 photo, a formal dress hangs from a wardrobe closet in a home destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Pedernales, Ecuador. The April 16 earthquake destroyed or damaged about 1,500 buildings and left some 23,500 people homeless, the government said. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
This April 24, 2016 photo shows the marquee announcing the name of the lodging Texas Hospedaje, originally on the facade of the hotel, sitting in front of the earthquake-damaged structure, in Pedernales, Ecuador. President Rafael Correa has said it could cost tiny Ecuador $3 billion, or about 3 percent of gross domestic product, to rebuild from the April 16 quake. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 24, 2016 photo shows tufts of grass framed by a breach in a public school wall mural damaged by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Pedernales, Ecuador. Hundreds of aftershocks rattled the country since the April 16 quake, that found Ecuadoreans sleeping outside and struggling to find food and water. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 20, 2016 photo shows a soccer table partially buried by rubble with the names of two popular Ecuadorean teams, Barcelona and Emelec, in a home destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Pedernales, Ecuador. President Rafael Correa has said the quake caused $3 billion in damage and warned that the reconstruction effort will take years. His administration is temporarily raising taxes to fund the recovery. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
This April 18, 2016 photo objects points to the presence of family life in a structure destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in La Chorrera, Ecuador. The powerful earthquake shook Ecuador’s central coast on a Saturday evening on April 16, killing hundreds and spreading panic hundreds of kilometers (miles) away as it collapsed homes and buckled highways. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
This April 25, 2016 photo shows a sign that reads in Spanish: “We need help because we were affected by the earthquake, we need food and medicine,” on the side of a highway outside Pedernales, Ecuador. More than a dozen roads were closed due to damage from the April 16, 7.8-magnitude earthquake, making it harder for rescuers to reach where they were needed most. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 19, 2016 photo shows a poster featuring Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa inside an earthquake-damaged house, in Manta, Ecuador. Correa said the quake had caused $3 billion in damage, about 3 percent of gross domestic product, and rebuilding would take years. “It’s going to be a long battle,” he said. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 23, 2016 photo shows a broken guitar alongside a wall clock inside a home destroyed by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Pedernales, Ecuador. Teams from all over the world fanned out across the country’s Pacific coastline to look for the dozens of people who went missing after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the area on the Saturday evening of April 16. Residents joined in with their bare hands, increasingly desperate as the clock for finding survivors ran down. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 18, 2016 photo shows a damaged angel statue at a cemetery felled by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in Portoviejo, Ecuador. The April 16 earthquake destroyed or damaged about 1,500 buildings and left more than 20,000 people homeless, the government said. It was the worst temblor in Ecuador since one in 1949 killed more than 5,000 people. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
This April 18, 2016 photo shows candles on a plank, burning in memory of those killed by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake, in La Chorrera, Ecuador. The total energy released by the April 16 magnitude-7.8 quake in Ecuador was “probably about 20 times greater” than the magnitude-7.0 quake in Japan earlier that Saturday, said a professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in London. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)
This April 22, 2016 photo shows empty coffins dotted with raindrops inside a stadium converted into an earthquake response center run by the military and police, in Pedernales, Ecuador. The death toll rose to 654 the government reported a week after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake flattened towns along Ecuador’s coast. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
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