A New Philadelphia woman is doing her part to help out those affected by the April 16 earthquake in Ecuador.
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake was centered along the coast, about 105 northwest of Quito, the country’s capital, The Associated Press has reported. Hundreds of people have died and more have been injured.
“There are people that lost everything that they have,” Teah Adams, 34, said Friday.
Adams has a special connection to the area after she lived in Ecuador for a couple months when she was younger. Jose Ramon Moreira and Vanessa Moreira, brother and sister, were exchange students from Ecuador that Adams met and her parents hosted while she was a student at Shikellamy High School, Sunbury.
Adams has established an account on the crowd-funding site www.youcaring.com for essentials, such as water, for those impacted by the earthquake. So far, $1,005 has been donated to the cause. To donate, type in Teah’s help to provide water to Ecuador earthquake survivors. Adams and her father sent money to Jose and Vanessa to help them out.
When she heard about the earthquake, she tried to contact Jose and Vanessa. One of their sisters responded that they were OK. Adams said that conditions are not good in Manta, the hometown of Jose and Vanessa.
“They don’t have electricity yet. They don’t have running water,” she said.
Smaller earthquakes have rocked the area since the large one, Adams said.
Adams said she keeps in contact with the Moreiras regularly. Because of the earthquake, she communicates by Facebook Messenger when they can get a Wi-Fi connection. Adams used the application to reach out to Vanessa. She said Vanessa was just leaving the family store Saturday, which sells school clothing and other items, minutes before the earthquake struck.
Jose emailed Adams a letter about what he was doing at the time of the earthquake. He said he was in his house with his daughter about 7 p.m., and when he felt the earthquake, he left his house. He later drove to Tarqui, a section of Manta, to look for his father, Jose Moreira, and his sister.
“I parked the car in the middle of the street and everything was dark. It looked like an apocalyptic day, people running and crying. Everybody was so scared,” he wrote in an email to Adams.
He later found his father and other members of his family. He spent the night in a park, but is staying at his house, which was not damaged, and helped people as much as he could. Vanessa is staying at her own house with their mother, Carmen Moreira. Adams said the father is staying with friends. Jose said in the email he went back to Tarqui the next day was surprised at what he saw.
“It looked like a dozen bombs exploded all over Tarqui,” he said.
He said buildings were reduced to rubble. The home and business of his parents is not able to be salvaged. Still, he is optimistic.
“I hope that people through this understand what it means to lose everything overnight and be grateful for what they have right now,” he wrote in the email.