Two search and rescue experts from the Chapala Red Cross were recruited to serve on the Mexican relief brigade that helped dig out coastal towns left in ruins by the powerful 7.8-magnitud earthquake that struck Ecuador on April 16.
José Manuel Siordia Moya and Francisco Javier Torres Chavez departed Chapala the following day, landing in Quito early the next morning aboard a federal police jet together with the rest of Mexico’s rescue team.
They were dispatched to Portoviejo in the province of Manabí where they assisted in pulling five injured people, a dog, a cat and one corpse from the rubble of a collapsed five story hotel.
The two local men sweated out close to 40 frightening seismic replicas while pitching in with humanitarian aid for hundreds of earthquake victims during the remainder of the week.