Probably related to the Japanese earthquakes a few days ago. Ring of Fire and all that.
My one close friend from Ecuador is from Cuenca, an Andean city far from the quake center.
I have a friend in Bahia de Caraquez which looks to be less than 100 miles south of the epicenter. Haven’t yet heard back from him and given the infrastructure there, I probably won’t for a while. He is a ham radio guy so he may be operating on batteries. He moved to Ecuador after Obama was elected.