Bay Area residents return from Ecuador following massive quake

VALLEJO, Calif. (KGO) -- Ecuador continues to manage through the disaster from last week's earthquake.

Bay Area seismic expert Kit Miyamoto is on his way to lend his expertise to the effort.

"One of the most important aspects is damage assessment, and many times the government can't handle this because this is a wide spread earthquake," he said.

Pictures of the disaster were taken by two Vallejo residents, who were in the Ecuadorian town of San Clemente when the quake struck.

"It lasted 49 seconds, some people said some people said it was 65 seconds, so it didn't end. We were out in the streets and it was continuing to roll," said Alice Gandelman.

Gandelman and Bill Freedman were vacationing there and then they started helping with the relief effort.

They shot video on their phones of community volunteers and other tourists helping put together care packages for residents.

"It felt so good to help because that's one of the things, when you're in the middle of such a tragedy you want to do something, so it really felt good to help," she said.

"I wish we could do more, and I really wish people could send money to them because you know, even if you send five dollars it means a lot to them," explained Freedman.

They returned home Friday night. They say they're happy to be back in the Bay Area, but Ecuador is still on their minds.