Another 2,260 people are reported to have been injured, and an estimated 12,000 houses destroyed. Many of those still missing are thought to be buried under the adobe buildings, characteristic of the rural areas, which swayed and collapsed under the power of the quake. Other victims were caught in mudslides along the provincial highways and side roads. In the bigger farming towns of San Vicente and Cojutepeque every second house was on the ground. In both towns the electricity and phones are working again, but not the water supplies.
Outlying areas are without any basic services.
To help reach some of the remoter regions, army helicopters from Nicaragua and Guatemala, and US Chinooks, have been called in. As provincial hospitals have filled up, people have been ferried to San Salvador. Blood supplies for transfusions are said to be running out. The epicentre of Tuesday's earthquake was 12 miles south-east of San Salvador. Tremors were felt constantly between the two quakes.