A series, a total of 13 earthaquakes of a magnitude greater than 3 on the Richter scale, frightened the Esmeraldas residents between Tuesday night and early yesterday morning. Many families left their homes in the provincial capital and went to open places like the Civic Square, the Juan Montalvo and Bolivar streets, in downtown, where they spent the night.
Others, however, woke up in the sidewalks outside their homes. “Nobody could sleep. The children are very frightened, every time the land shaked, they run through different directions,” said Loren Espinoza, who lives with her husband and children in the house of relatives, in the Codesa neighborhood, after her house remained uninhabitable by the earthquake of April 16 and the aftershocks of May 18.
