1986 San Salvador earthquake: 10 seconds of shaking caused 1,530 deaths and 200,000 people affected

Nearly four decades after the disaster, the aftermath of the event motivates annual commemorations every October 10 (Courtesy: Physical Geology UES). On October 10, 1986, at 11:49, the capital of El Salvador shook for ten seconds during which a geological fault turned the urban center into a mass of rubble. The event, known as the San Salvador earthquake, caused a disaster that left a toll of 1,530 people dead, 10,000 injured, and more than 200,000 homeless, according to the official records of the National Service of Territorial Studies (SNET). The seismic shake of magnitude 5.4 on the Richter scale occurred in the midst of the armed conflict the country was going through and exposed the serious deficiencies in the capital's building infrastructure. The movement originated at a depth of 7.3 kilometers, with an epicenter located in Los Planes de Renderos, south of the city. Despite its short duration, the shallow depth and the trajectory of the shock wave toward the north multiplied the destructive effect in densely populated areas such as Candelaria, Santa Anita, and San Jacinto. More than 60,000 homes suffered total or partial destruction, while 90% of the public hospital network was disabled due to structural failures. At the Benjamín Bloom National Children's Hospital, doctors and interns had to coordinate the evacuation of 11 floors while patients walked out; there, a single death occurred due to the interruption of the electricity supply powering an artificial respirator. Ruins of the Rubén Darío building in downtown San Salvador after the October 10, 1986 earthquake, a structure whose collapse caused nearly 300 deaths. The most tragic symbol of the day was the collapse of the Rubén Darío building, a five-level structure located at the intersection of Third Avenue South and Rubén Darío Street. The building, constructed with reinforced concrete in the 1950s, had been weakened by the May 1965 earthquake, and warnings of demolition that were never carried out weighed upon it. During the ten seconds of the shake on October 10, the building turned to dust and left 300 fatalities trapped in a structure that had been declared uninhabitable. Local and international rescue brigades, from Mexico and France, worked continuously among the ruins and managed to extract 150 people alive, of whom two survivors remained buried for more than 75 hours. A few streets away, in the San Jacinto neighborhood, the Santa Catalina school suffered the complete collapse of its facade and adobe and bahareque classrooms. The school tragedy shocked the country when relief teams confirmed that 41 girls and one boy died among the rubble of the classrooms. The October 10 earthquake left this mother without her two daughters who studied at the Santa Catalina School Center. The high intensity observed, which reached grade IX on the Mercalli scale, caused a prolonged sequence of seismic instability. In the days that followed, 2,745 aftershocks were counted, which terrified the population and hindered rescue efforts in the metropolitan area. Subsequent analyses prepared by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) calculated that the seismic event caused losses equivalent to 23% of the Salvadoran gross domestic product and an increase in the fiscal deficit. Some 3,183 buildings registered damage of varying degrees, which forced the issuance of more than 100 orders for immediate demolition. The catastrophe paralyzed much of the commerce and public services in the capital, destroyed roads, and cut the supplies of electricity and drinking water for weeks. Archive images documenting the devastation caused by the earthquake that shook San Salvador on October 10, 1986. The report shows collapsed buildings, such as the Rubén Darío, and streets full of rubble. Faced with the magnitude of the emergency, humanitarian aid began to enter through the Ilopango airport. During the last months of 1986, the international community mobilized a total of 12.5 million dollars. The government of the United States initially contributed 325,000 dollars destined for the rescue of victims, and shortly after, the Congress of that country approved a fund of 50 million dollars for the urgent restoration of vital infrastructure. In 1988, the Agency for International Development (AID) delivered an additional contribution of 105 million dollars destined for the reconstruction of hospitals, educational centers, community markets, and environmental sanitation networks. These resources made it possible to erect new buildings under earthquake-resistant engineering parameters. The 1986 disaster forced a comprehensive review of the building codes in El Salvador, which established stricter regulations for urban design and the oversight of construction in areas of high seismic risk.