Santa Cruz flooding leaves Galápagos families in shelters days later

Flooding on Ecuador's Santa Cruz Island left one person dead and drove families from their homes after hours of heavy rain hit Bellavista, Divino Niño and Puerto Ayora on the night of Oct. 30 into Oct. 31. Days later, families remained in shelters, the Santa Cruz health center was out of service, and emergency crews kept moving medicine and other supplies into the Galápagos.

Ecuador's risk management agency said in an official situation report that heavy rain on the night of Oct. 30 caused ravines to overflow and flooded several parts of Santa Cruz, with 60 families affected and the Santa Cruz health center knocked out by flooding. By Nov. 4, Mayor Fanny Uribe said more than 130 people were in shelters and cleanup could take about eight days, according to Primicias.

The health ministry said on Nov. 4 that families were receiving care through brigades, three temporary shelters and a contingency point at the Galápagos campus of the Central University of Ecuador. The ministry reported 109 brigade visits and 240 consultations in the shelters, with 10 rapid-response teams deployed while the flooded Santa Cruz health center remained inoperable.

El Universo, citing Ecuador's risk management platform, reported that 3,120 people had been identified as affected on Santa Cruz as of Nov. 1. That update also said one person had died and two people were missing that afternoon, while Mayor Uribe later said there were no missing people.

Medical care and cleanup shaped daily life across the island this week. Patients were treated at a temporary Red Cross site because the usual hospital facilities were not fully back in service. The health ministry said 10,890 medical units had been sent from Guayas and another 9,114 units were donated by the Charles Darwin Foundation.

The flooding exposed long-running drainage problems in the island's growing neighborhoods. Primicias reported that national emergency officials said some of the hardest-hit sectors lacked stormwater drainage, including La Cascada, where water had nowhere to go when the rain came down.

Government agencies kept sending aid to the island. The human development ministry said it had sent 1,500 humanitarian aid kits for families affected on Santa Cruz, while the production ministry said the road network in the island's higher terrain had interruptions after the flooding.

Crews went house to house on Santa Cruz to count damaged properties, according to Primicias. Uribe said a fuller count of the damage was expected within two days as neighborhoods cleared mud and debris.