Religion

NC-based Samaritan’s Purse sending supplies, personnel to Ecuador after earthquake

A woman cries as she stands next to house destroyed by the earthquake in the Pacific coastal town of Pedernales, Ecuador on April 17, 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. Samaritan’s Purse, a Boone-based Christian charity, is sending personnel, supplies and a mobile field hospital to the South American countries to help victims recover from the quake.
A woman cries as she stands next to house destroyed by the earthquake in the Pacific coastal town of Pedernales, Ecuador on April 17, 2016. The strongest earthquake to hit Ecuador in decades flattened buildings and buckled highways along its Pacific coast, sending the Andean nation into a state of emergency. Samaritan’s Purse, a Boone-based Christian charity, is sending personnel, supplies and a mobile field hospital to the South American countries to help victims recover from the quake. Dolores Ochoa AP

Samaritan’s Purse, a Christian relief agency based in Boone, is sending disaster response specialists, medical personnel and others to Ecuador to help people there recover from a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Saturday.

The charity will deploy a field hospital that will have an emergency room that can treat more than 100 people day, an operating theater where up to 10 surgeries a day can be performed, 20 in-patient beds, an outpatient lab and a pharmacy. About 40 medical personnel will staff the mobile hospital, said Samaritan’s Purse spokesman Scott Knuteson.

The North Carolina group is also working on bringing clean water to 50,000 people and providing shelter for 5,000 families.

Knuteson said Samaritan Purse’s refurbished DC8 plane, filled with supplies and personnel, will depart Wednesday from Greensboro. Other flights are planned.

“The earthquake in Ecuador has caused incredible injury, destruction and loss,” Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse, said in a statement. “We are responding in the Name of Jesus Christ to help with emergency needs such as water, shelter and medical care. Please keep the people of Ecuador in your prayers.”

Tim Funk: 704-358-5703, @timfunk

This story was originally published April 19, 2016 at 1:19 PM with the headline "NC-based Samaritan’s Purse sending supplies, personnel to Ecuador after earthquake."

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