Sunday, March 14, 2010

Chile will take years to recover from quake impact: president


Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has said the Feb 27 earthquake and the following tsunami had cost the nation tens of billions of dollars and left an impact that would be felt for years.

Pinera Friday said at a press conference that the 8.8-magnitude earthquake, the fifth largest ever recorded in the world, would also make Chileans spiritually stronger, Xinhua reported.

'The people of Chile have shown their courage. I believe we will be able to overcome this tragedy,' he said.

Nearly 500 people were killed and two million injured or displaced in the temblor and the resulting tsunami.

The president added that reconstruction work after the quake will last many years and will require an adjustment to the nation's budget plan for the current year.

'There will be austerity in public spending, moving money from lower priority projects to reconstruction projects,' said the president, already well known for being a billionaire before he won the Jan 17 presidential election runoff.

'We will also use part of savings...to boost reconstruction plans,' Pinera said. As the biggest copper exporter in the world, Chile has saved $11 billion during the years of high copper prices. The nation owns the National Copper Corporation of Chile (Codelco), the world's largest copper company.

This weekend, Pinera said he will leave on an inspection tour of some of the worst quake-hit cities and towns, including Concepcion, Talcahuano, Dichato, Pelluhue, Cauquenes, Talca, Iloca and Curico.

Source:sify.com/

Chile May Borrow Abroad, Tap Its Copper Savings to Rebuild


March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean President Sebastian Pinera plans to tap copper savings funds and may borrow abroad to pay for the estimated $30 billion cost of repairing damage caused by the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the country Feb. 27.
More than 500 Chileans died in the quake and the tsunami that followed it, Pinera said yesterday. That death toll will probably rise as more bodies are identified and because of the “many people” still missing, he said.
The country has been left poorer by the earthquake, he said, citing damage done to homes, schools, hospitals and infrastructure. Last month’s quake, the world’s fifth biggest in the past century, was a “calamity” for Chile, Pinera said.
“Chile is poorer than a few weeks ago,” Pinera told reporters in Santiago yesterday. “We’re poorer for the loss of life, we’re poorer for the loss of economic wealth.”
Pinera said he plans to rewrite the 2010 budget to free up resources for a reconstruction fund, adding the government will also tap its savings. Chile has $11.3 billion invested overseas in an economic stabilization fund that the government can use to finance a budget deficit. Using money from the fund could mean selling dollars to buy pesos, boosting the Chilean currency.
“We will study the possibility of contracting debts overseas,” Pinera said. “Chile has hardly any public sector debt.”
Chile, South America’s fifth-largest economy with gross domestic product of $169 billion, is a net creditor, with more in its offshore savings funds than it owes. The country has $1.75 billion of international bonds outstanding, all due before the end of 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Loan Offers
Multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, the Inter- American Development Bank and Caracas-based Corporacion Andina de Fomento have offered to lend Chile money, Finance Minister Felipe Larrain said.
“The options are there, but before that we have to look at the numbers and see how much we’ll need in financing,” Larrain said. “We’re still working on the budget and analyzing the different items in the budget to see how to allocate resources to reconstruction.”
Chile’s government will spend $300 million on cash handouts to the poor, Larrain said. Pinera signed the bill authorizing the payments in his first legislative act as president, and it will be sent to Congress on March 15, Larrain said.
The government hopes to make the first payments this month, the finance minister said.
The high price of Chile’s main export, copper, may also help pay for reconstruction, the president said.
Years of Rebuilding
Rebuilding “won’t last weeks or months,” Pinera said. “It will last years, because the magnitude of the damage caused is on a scale never before seen in Chile,”
Chile’s new government will need to weigh the advantages of borrowing in dollars, which may push up the peso, and borrowing in pesos, which could push up the cost of selling bonds for Chilean companies.
“If they tap too much domestically, they’ll crowd out the private sector, which needs funds for reconstruction,” said Rafael de la Fuente, chief Latin American economist at BNP Paribas SA in New York. “If they go abroad, they put pressure on the currency. That’s the trade-off.”
The peso rose 3.1 percent in the five days following the quake, the most of any of the seven Latin American currencies tracked by Bloomberg, on speculation the government would need to sell dollars to pay for rebuilding. Since then it has depreciated 1.8 percent, the most of 26 emerging-market currencies, after central bank President Jose De Gregorio said it may have “overshot.”
Chile’s peso will begin weakening late this year as the earthquake, economic growth and record-low interest rates sap demand for fixed-income assets, said Guillermo Osses, who helps oversee $50 billion in emerging-market assets at Pacific Investment Management Co.
The peso may slide to 550 per dollar in a year and to as weak as 600 in an “extreme case,” Osses said.


Source:businessweek.com/

Flagstone estimates Chile quake claims at $50M


Flagstone Reinsurance Holdings Ltd. said Friday its estimated losses from claims related to the recent earthquake in Chile will be $50 million.

In addition, the Bermuda-based insurer and reinsurer estimates claims from Windstorm Xynthia, which hit Western Europe on Feb. 27, at $3 million to $6 million.

The estimates are preliminary, and net of reinstatement premiums and retrocession.

Flagstone said it could significantly revise the estimates as more information becomes available. In Chile, which has been hit by a series of aftershocks following the initial Feb. 27 earthquake, inspections of damaged buildings will take months, Flagstone said.

Shares of Flagstone fell 6 cents to $11.20 in midday trading.


Source:businessweek.com/

Goldcorp Projects in Chile, Quebec to Underpin Growth

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- Goldcorp Inc., the world’s second- largest gold producer by market value, said its El Morro project in Chile and Eleonore in Quebec will become the company’s biggest sources of growth by 2015.
Sales of copper from El Morro will more than pay for the costs of gold production at the project, Chief Executive Officer Chuck Jeannes said today in a telephone interview. Eleonore’s gold-production cost is estimated at $400 an ounce, lower than the company’s overall 2010 costs, not including byproducts, of $450 an ounce, he said.
Jeannes is looking to keep production rising beyond 2014, when Vancouver-based Goldcorp is aiming to produce 3.8 million ounces of the precious metal a year, from a forecast of 2.6 million ounces this year.
The company announced in January that it planned to acquire El Morro from Xstrata Plc. in a transaction with Xstrata partner New Gold Inc. Goldcorp advanced New Gold $463 million to allow New Gold to acquire the 70 percent of El Morro it didn’t own and then agreed to pay New Gold an additional $50 million to get full control of the project. The transaction blocked Barrick Gold Corp.’s earlier offer to acquire the mine for $465 million.
Barrick, the world’s biggest gold producer, claims Goldcorp’s deal with New Gold is illegal and asked a judge to halt the sale.
Goldcorp gained control of Eleonore as part of a $420 million equity transaction completed in 2006.
Goldcorp fell 78 cents, or 1.9 percent, to C$40.09 at 4:16 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The shares have declined 3 percent this year.

Sourc:ebusinessweek.com/

Chile quake, Finland strike behind pulp price increase

MONTREAL–Canadian pulp producers are expected to benefit from a sustained improvement in the forestry product's pricing caused by the Chilean earthquake and a strike in Finland, analysts say.

Chile accounts for about 8 per cent of the world supply of pulp. Reports suggest that six of the South American country's pulp mills have been shut since the Feb. 27 earthquake.

The mills produce an estimated 3.8 million tonnes of pulp annually. The quake has removed 300,000 tonnes of monthly supply, or 7 per cent of the world's pulp production.

In Finland, a strike by port workers that started March 4 has cut off most exports and forced newsprint and pulp mills to close. The Nordic country exports about 1.5 million tonnes of pulp annually.

As a result, pulp prices have risen in the United States, Europe, and China and more are expected because suppliers have limited ability to build inventories before normal spring maintenance downtime. But newsprint prices are down after recovering in recent months.

Sourc:ethestar.com/

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Symbolic building demolished in quake-hit Chile

CONCEPCION, Chile — Workers demolished a fallen 15-story apartment building that has come to symbolize Chile's earthquake after officials said there was no more hope for finding survivors inside.

The only known remaining victim not recovered from the Alto Rio building was 21-year-old Jose Luis Leon, whose father on Saturday shouted desperately into holes in the concrete cut by rescuers looking for trapped victims.

"Jose Luis! Jose Luis!" cried Jose Leon, who had been given permission by authorities for one last search through the rubble for his son.

There was no answer.

Shortly afterward, a yellow excavator began clawing into the concrete slabs and twisted metal to completely demolish the structure whose collapse during the Feb. 27 earthquake had moved Chileans. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon visited the fallen apartment building in the quake-shattered city of Concepcion on Saturday.

"I am convinced that with your bravery and strong determination, you will rise back on your feet again to build a better future," Ban told Chileans.

Emergency workers said continuing aftershocks have made the rubble too unstable for firefighters to continue looking for Jose Luis Leon and there is no hope of finding more survivors in the Alto Rio building.

"The family understands that there is nothing else the firefighters can do," Cmdr. Juan Carlos Subercaseaux told Chile's Radio Cooperativa, suggesting that the son's body might be recoverable for burial once the demolition is done.

At least seven significant aftershocks shook Chile on Saturday, the largest with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

No additional damage or injuries were immediately reported, but aftershocks have dangerously weakened buildings all across the disaster zone, including a 22-story office tower whose now-exposed upper floors have partly pancacked and threaten to crash down onto downtown Concepcion. The city's mayor has announced at least five contracts for controlled demolitions of such buildings.

At least 500,000 homes were destroyed, but the figure could reach 1.5 million once surveys are complete, Housing Minister Patricia Poblete said.

At least the Leon family knows the body is somewhere inside the wreckage of the Alto Rio. A week after the 8.8-magnitude earthquake and tsunami, hundreds of people are still searching for relatives with the help of community radio station Bio-Bio, which broadcasts their appeals day and night. With power still out in vast stretches of the disaster area, phone lines downed and cell service spotty, communication was difficult or impossible for most survivors.

U.N. programs already have delivered many tons of relief supplies and other aid, including 79 metric tons of high-energy biscuits and other food, enough to feed 35,000 children for five days.

Chileans also are helping themselves: The military is leading a massive relief and recovery effort, with air force planes landing every half hour in Concepcion, and a 24-hour national telethon aimed at collecting $30 million Saturday.

That's just a tiny fraction of the up to $30 billion experts have estimated will be needed for the recovery effort — a huge amount for a country with an annual budget of $42 billion, even though Chile has saved more than $11 billion in copper profits from the state-owned Codelco mining company.

Police flying over the destroyed port in the neighboring city of Talcahuano located another man's body, and divers recovered a boy's body in the coastal town of Pelluhue. In Chile's remote Juan Fernandez islands, where five were killed and 11 swept away in the tsunami, a burial service was held for 14-year-old Maite Arredondo.

With the tsunami wiping away entire communities and stranding wreckage miles inland in mainland Chile, the death toll has been difficult to determine. After first reporting higher figures, the Chilean Interior Department said it would release only the number of identified dead: 452 as of the latest announcement, on Friday.

Source:AFP

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

For Chile's Bachelet, decision to call on army was weighty


Reporting from Mexico City - Given the family history of Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, it is with some irony that she has been forced in the final days of her government to call on the army to rescue her earthquake-ravaged nation.

As a young woman, Bachelet was jailed and tortured by the military dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Her father, an air force general who opposed the 1973 military coup, died in jail.

But now, faced with large-scale looting and food shortages, Bachelet, who heads the fourth consecutive center-left government since Pinochet's 1990 ouster, has sent in the troops.

And so far, the move has been met with wide public approval -- testament to the depth of the emergency, the high level of popular support for Bachelet, and a modern military.

It is not a decision she made lightly; she arrived at it only after intense debate within the government, say experts and people who know her.

"She has the credibility and the political capital to take a step like this," said Peter DeShazo, director of the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former U.S. State Department official in charge of Latin America.

Given her history, Bachelet, a Socialist, will be trusted by many Chileans to act to preserve law and order without allowing human rights to be violated, DeShazo added.

If anything, Bachelet, 58, has been criticized in some quarters for not sending in the army more quickly after the magnitude 8.8 quake struck early Saturday, with some Chileans questioning whether her leftist politics slowed her hand. President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office March 11, subtly took a stab at Bachelet saying, after she announced the army deployment Sunday, that he was glad she had finally taken his suggestion.

Chile remains a fundamentally conservative country, socially, politically and economically. Preserving order is of primordial importance to large segments of society, and some Chileans are willing to risk a return to authoritarianism amid the threat of a much-feared "social explosion."

Long before her election four years ago, Bachelet worked to build a good relationship with Chile's democracy-era military. Under the presidency of mentor Ricardo Lagos, she served as defense minister, the first woman to hold that post in South America. Her work in cultivating mutual trust was instrumental in her victory in the 2006 election.

Bachelet's father, Alberto, was sympathetic to the democratically elected, leftist government of Salvador Allende. When Allende was overthrown by Pinochet, Bachelet's father was imprisoned and tortured. He died of a heart attack while in custody in 1974.

The next year, Bachelet and her mother were also imprisoned and tortured. They were allowed to go into exile, eventually settling in East Germany. Bachelet returned to Chile in 1979, finishing her medical studies and practicing as a pediatrician.

Before the quake, Bachelet was enjoying approval ratings around an extraordinary 80%, in large part because she is credited with shielding Chile from the global economic crisis of the last couple of years.

The Chilean Constitution barred her from seeking a consecutive term, and, unlike many of her counterparts in Latin America, she was bowing out gracefully, even when Pinera, a right-wing billionaire from the opposition, defeated her party in elections in January.

Speaking Tuesday, Bachelet reiterated the need for the military, saying that nearly 14,000 troops had been dispatched to restore order but also to assist in distribution of aid.

"Help will arrive," she said. "You can always feel that things could have been done better, but the truth is it will always be insufficient."

Source:latimes.com/

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Elliott Yamin in need of diabetes supplies in Chile

Former American Idol contestant Elliott Yamin told Fox that he’s fearing for his health, as he’s running out of medical supplies to treat his Type 1 diabetes while he’s stuck in the earthquake-ravaged Chile. “I only packed enough insulin supplies for my pump to last a couple more days, so I’m starting to worry,” he told Fox. “I don’t know how long we’re going to be here. This country isn’t very keen on insulin pumps; supplies for my pump are running low. Hospitals here are very crowded, and as you can imagine, they are dealing with bigger things.” Yamin was in Chile to perform at a musical festival 90 miles outside Santiago. (It’s since been relocated to Santiago.)

He might be worried for his health, but Yamin seems to be more optimistic on his Twitter account. Though he had tweeted a disconcerting message a few hours ago — “i think im starting to have post traumatic stress, as i reflect on where ive been over the last 2 weeks, and what ive been thru..altho im safe, alive,and well,still experiencing aftershox,and will b restless until i touch down on american soil” — his tweets have since brightened: “Wow, this is actually a very beautiful city!”

Source:news-briefs.ew.com/

Chile earthquake may have shortened length of Earth's days

The Chilean earthquake has shortened the length of the day by making the Earth rotate faster, according to NASA scientists.
But you might not have noticed, as it was only by about one-millionth of a second.
Richard Gross has revealed the disaster shortened the length of a day by about 1.26 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

The Chilean disaster has shortened the length of the day by 1.26 microseconds
The 8.8-magnitude disaster struck the South American country on Saturday, killing at least 795 people and injuring hundreds more.
The quake would have moved the axis of the planet by about 8cm.
Mr Gross, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said the 9.1-magnitude Sumatran earthquake in 2004 has also shortened the length of day by 6.8 microseconds.
He claimed the calculated changes in the length of a day are permanent.
However, Mr Gross added: ‘These changes are very, very small.’
The length of a day is the time it takes for the planet to complete one rotation - 86,400 seconds or 24 hours.
An earthquake can make Earth rotate faster by nudging some of its mass closer to the planet's axis, just as ice skaters can speed up their spins by pulling in their arms.
Conversely, a quake can slow the rotation and lengthen the day if it redistributes mass away from that axis, Mr Gross added.

Source:dailymail.co.uk/

Chile Looting Eases as Aftershocks Persist

Aftershocks continue to rattle Chile, days after the devastating 8.8 earthquake.

In the first 72 hours after Saturday's quake, there were 131 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater.

Complete Coverage: Earthquake in Chile
How to Help: Aid Organizations, Mobile Giving

And officials continue to count the dead. Chile's National Disaster Office says almost 800 are now known to have died.

One town is using a church as a morgue. In another, people are burying the dead quickly because the funeral home has no electricity.

Most of the deaths came in communities along Chile's south-central Pacific coast, near the quake's epicenter, where tsunami waves swept the shore.

Among the victims were 40 retirees enjoying summer vacation at a seaside campground. The tsunami hit them in three waves, surging 200 meters into the resort town of and dragging away the bus they'd piled into, hoping to get to high ground.

Aid is starting to arrive in Chile, including 25 satellite phones from the United States dropped off today by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

More coverage of the earthquake in Chile

Chile Quake May Have Shortened Earth's Day
Tsunami Swept Bus with Retirees into Ocean
Small Plane Carrying Aid Crashes in Chile
Chileans Cope, Awaiting Aid
Chile: Aid Trickles Out but Looters Remain

Argentina has flown in a field hospital, while Brazil and Peru are sending cargo planes with supplies, hospitals and doctors.

Chilean troops have been dispatched to the earthquake zone to discourage looting, and officials have begun handing out food and water.

When supplies arrived in the central Chilean city of Constitucion, people didn't cheer. They jeered, furious with Chile's president that it took so long, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Strassmann.

"She should come here," one man said, referring to Chile President Michelle Bachelet. "We need help. We don't have anything here."

Relief workers have their own frustration, Strassmann reports. With so many collapsed and closed roads and bridges, many areas desperate for help are cut off, and works have to hear yet again "You can't get there from here."

Looting Eases in Concepcion

CONCEPCION - Looting has eased in Chile's second-largest city after 1,500 troops arrived to enforce a curfew.

Nearly every store in Concepcion has been looted following the weekend earthquake that left much of the city in ruins. Some stores were set on fire.

Chile's president, Michelle Bachelet, says 14,000 soldiers and marines have been deployed for security across the earthquake zone, and hundreds of tons of food, water and other basics are being flown in.

The magnitude 8.9 quake early Saturday has killed at least 723 people. Most of the deaths have been in communities along Chile's south-central Pacific coast, closest to the epicenter.

The quake set off a tsunami that sent waves 200 yards into one resort town, destroying about 300 homes and dragging away a bus carrying 40 vacationing retirees.

Clinton Promises More Aid

SANTIAGO - The secretary of state has delivered satellite phones - and Clinton is promising more aid to earthquake-ravaged Chile as it recovers from the deadly disaster.

At a news conference today with Chile's president in Santiago, Clinton said the U.S. would also send water purification systems and a mobile field hospital with surgical capability that is "ready to go."

Clinton said the U.S. is "ready to help in any way" that Chile requests.

Chile's president said her country also needs temporary bridges and cash donations to buy food and medicine, as well as generators.

Search of Toppled Apartment Building Resumes

CONCEPCION - The search for survivors has resumed at a toppled apartment building in the Chilean city of Concepcion.

Firefighters have already pulled 25 survivors and nine bodies from the structure, heavily damaged in Saturday's quake.

Security in the city is still a concern. A curfew that was in effect overnight has been extended until noon today, in an effort to crack down on looting.

Most markets in the city have been ransacked by looters, and by people desperate for food, water, toilet paper and other essentials. Troops were sent in, and dozens of arrests have been made.

All along the coast, in areas affected by the quake, food is scarce and destruction is widespread. In one community, the local church is serving as a morgue. In another, people quickly buried their dead because the funeral home has no electricity.

Chile's president says authorities are flying hundreds of tons of food, water and other basics into the region.

© MMX, CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source:cbsnews.com/

Chile steps up aid to desperate quake victims

CONSTITUCION, Chile - Chile's government used helicopters and boats to speed up the delivery of food to hungry survivors on Tuesday as the death toll rose to nearly 800 three days after a devastating earthquake and tsunami.


Chileans desperate for food and water swarmed soldiers as an army helicopter touched down in the ruined coastal town of Constitucion, which was hit by three giant waves set off by Saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake.


The government dispatched more troops to restore order in Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, which was placed under curfew for 18 hours a day after looters raided stores and burned a supermarket.


There were no reports of major outbreaks of looting on Tuesday and President Michelle Bachelet said order had been restored in the city, which bore the brunt of the quake along with coastal towns that were also devastated by tsunamis.


Constitucion, with a population of nearly 40,000, accounts for nearly half of the official death toll, which Bachelet said had risen to 795. Surrounded by three hills, the city was turned into a ruin of flattened homes and toppled buildings. Wooden homes perched atop the hillsides were among the only buildings left standing.


Dozens of bodies were lined up on the floor of a makeshift morgue in a high school gymnasium, where people cringed at the pungent smell of death as they scoured a list of victims.


Officials estimated that between 100 and 500 people in the city are still missing.


Many Chileans complained that scores of deaths could have been avoided had the government responded faster to the earthquake, which set off a roaring tsunami a few hours later that killed many who had survived the quake.


"Nobody showed up around here to warn us," said Alejandra Jara, a 28-year-old resident of La Pesca, a small fishing village just north of Constitucion.


"We fled on our own because we know that when there's a big earthquake, you have to leave everything and take off."


Manuel Parra, who also ran for higher ground, was one of many residents whose seafront homes were washed off foundations. "Those who went inland up the hill survived. Those who didn't are no longer here," said the 64 year-old.


The government has acknowledged that rescue efforts have been slow, in part because of mangled roads and power cuts. But officials also misjudged the extent of the damage, initially declining offers for international aid.


TENSIONS HIGH


The looting and violence that followed the quake prompted some people in Concepcion to band together to protect their homes, armed with sticks and shotguns.


With tensions high in Concepcion, soldiers were delivering food and other basic supplies house to house.


Food, blankets and medical equipment were being sent to some of the estimated two million people affected by the quake, but residents complained of skyrocketing prices for everyday staples like bread and milk.


Making a stop on a tour of Latin America, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered 20 satellite phones to help in relief efforts. Bachelet, who is in her last days in office, said Chile was now asking other countries to help supply desalination plants and power generators.


Most of Concepcion remained without water and electricity as rescue teams used shovels and drills to find possible survivors in the rubble of a collapsed 14-story apartment block.


The looting and a growing perception that government relief efforts have been slow have tainted the country's hard-earned image as Latin America's beacon of order and stability.


But both the human and economic cost could have been a lot worse given the size of the quake, one of the world's biggest in the past century. Chile's rigid building codes left it much more prepared for a quake than Haiti, where more than 200,000 were killed in January in a 7.0-magnitude quake.


ECONOMIC DAMAGE


Chile has the most stable economy in Latin America but the huge quake and tsunamis have hit its efforts to climb out of a recession triggered by the global economic downturn.


Some analysts estimate the damage could cost Chile up to $30 billion, or about 15 per cent of its gross domestic product. But Bachelet said it was too early to tell.


Asked what it would cost to rebuild, Bachelet replied: "I can only say it will be a lot."


The disaster also hands billionaire businessman Sebastian Pinera a mammoth challenge days before he is sworn in as Chile's new president.


Pinera ran for office pledging to boost economic growth to an average of 6 per cent a year and create a million new jobs. On Tuesday, he said the quake had not altered his economic goals.


"Those figures remain," he said, adding that the reconstruction phase could accelerate growth and job creation.


The government has forecast the economy will grow between 4.5 per cent and 5.5 per cent this year.


Chile is the world's leading copper producer and supply concerns at first pushed global copper prices sharply higher but the country's main mines have resumed work and prices fell sharply on Tuesday.


The Chilean peso gained more than 1 per cent on Tuesday on bets that the government and pension funds will repatriate offshore funds to pay for the reconstruction effort.


The central bank has said it would keep interest rates at record lows to help stimulate the economy.

Source:montrealgazette.com/

Clinton promises solidarity, supplies for quake-damaged Chile

Santiago, Chile (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived Tuesday morning in Chile, bringing with her more than two dozen satellite phones and a pledge of U.S. commitment to the earthquake-damaged nation.

"The United States is ready to respond to the requests that the government of Chile has made so we can provide not only solidarity but specific supplies that are needed to help you recover from the earthquake," Clinton said at a brief news conference with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet.

"The people of Chile are responding with resilience and strength," Clinton said.

The secretary of state said she brought with her 25 satellite phones, one of which she presented to Bachelet at the news conference. Eight water purification units are on their way to Chile, Clinton said, and the United States will provide a mobile field hospital unit with surgical capabilities.

The United States will also work to provide autonomous dialysis machines, electricity generators, medical supplies and portable bridges, Clinton said.

The secretary of state also said that Americans would be told how they can contribute to the recovery effort.

In addition to meeting with Bachelet at the airport in Santiago, Clinton also met with President-elect Sebastian Piñera, who will be sworn in next week.

"I have been visiting sites of disaster for more than 30 years ... [and] it is very clear to me that Chile is much better prepared, much quicker to respond, more able to do so," Clinton said at a news conference with the president-elect.

She congratulated Piñera, a conservative billionaire businessman, on his inauguration. Piñera extended an invitation to President Obama to visit Chile.

Bachelet leaves office with high approval ratings for having steered the country through the global economic downturn and promoted progressive social reforms.

Clinton is in the midst of a six-nation tour of Latin America, planned before the earthquake.

She attended Monday's inauguration in Uruguay of President Jose Mujica, and then traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to meet with President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.

Clinton next travels to Brazil, where she is expected to talk with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva about his planned trip to Iran. The United States and other nations believe Iran has undertaken a program to build nuclear weapons, an assertion Iran denies.

She will stop in Costa Rica for meetings with President Oscar Arias and President-elect Laura Chinchilla, who takes office in May. She also will attend Pathways for Prosperity, a meeting of hemispheric officials. The initiative includes such things as "microcredit" loans and ways in which women can be empowered, a State Department spokesman has said.

Clinton's final stop will be Guatemala. She will meet with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom and leaders of other Central American countries and the Dominican Republic before returning to Washington.

The State Department has "strongly" urged U.S. citizens to avoid tourism and non-essential travel to Chile after the massive earthquake.

Source:cnn.com/

Clinton Visits Chile, Pledges Support in Wake of Deadly Earthquake

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged U.S. support Tuesday to earthquake-stricken Chile during the third stop on her six-nation tour of Latin America.

Clinton told reporters in Santiago the United States stands ready to help Chile in any way the government needs.

Speaking alongside Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Clinton said the U.S. is "grateful" for what Chile did in Haiti after that country's devastating earthquake earlier this year. She said the Chilean rescue teams were "some of the best" in the world.

During her brief visit to the Chilean capital, Secretary Clinton is holding talks with Chile's president-elect, Sebastian Pinera, who takes office next week.

Secretary Clinton also brought much-needed satellite phones to the country. Other details of U.S. aid are being discussed during Clinton's visit.

On Monday, Clinton met in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who asked for help mediating Argentina's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands.

Clinton said the U.S. will encourage both nations to engage in diplomacy, but will not commit to a more involved role.

Clinton began her trip in Uruguay.

Her next stop is Brazil, where on Wednesday she plans to urge President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to join the United States in supporting new U.N. sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.

She also plans to visit Costa Rica and Guatemala before heading back to the United States.

The U.S. takes a neutral position on the competing claims over the British-held Falkland Islands, which are nearly 500 kilometers from the South American coast. Argentina has long claimed sovereignty over the Falklands, which it refers to as Las Malvinas. It seized the islands in April 1982, and held them for two months until British forces retook control.

Source:voanews.com/

Chile looks for outside help in quake recovery

Chile is reaching out for help from the international community as it tries to restore the basic necessities in its quake-ravaged cities and towns following last weekend's 8.8-magnitude disaster.

Chilean authorities have so far confirmed 723 deaths that can be attributed to the quake and its aftermath. Some 500,000 Chilean houses were also damaged or destroyed.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said hundreds of tons of food, water and other supplies were being shipped into disaster-ravaged areas by airplane.

Several South America countries rushed to Chile's aid following news of the quake. Argentina sent six planeloads filled with a field hospital, doctors and water treatment plants, all of which were to arrive by the end of Tuesday. Brazil also sent a field hospital, along with rescue teams.

Nathan Crooks, a Santiago-based editor with Business News Americas, said the Chilean government has been successful in getting food and water out to quake survivors, but needs help with its logistical supply efforts.

"They are seeing now that the more help you have the better. So, anyone who wants to help, they are going to accept it," Crooks told CTV's Canada AM by telephone.

Elisabeth Byrs, a UN humanitarian spokesperson, said Chile was looking for temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones and generators, as well as water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis equipment to help with its recovery. It also is seeking damage assessment teams as it further probes the devastation.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs had made contact with 520 Canadians since the quake. But another 337 have not been located.

Tsunami-related deaths

Most of the deaths occurred in the wine-growing Maule region along Chile's south-central coast.

Less than half an hour after the quake, massive waves crashed onto coastal towns, though the Chilean navy did not immediately issue a tsunami warning -- a turn of events that Chilean Defence Minister Vidal has acknowledged was a mistake. Instead, local port captains called their own warnings, which Vidal said may have helped to save hundreds of lives.

In the resort town of Pelluhue, a group of 40 retirees were killed as they tried to escape the coming waves by bus. The water dragged the passengers to their presumed deaths and authorities have so far only found five of their bodies.

Claudio Escalona fled his home near the same campground where the retirees were staying.

"We ran through the highest part of town, yelling, 'Get out of your homes!'" Escalona told The Associated Press.

"About 20 minutes later came three waves, two of them huge, about six metres each, and a third even bigger. That one went into everything."

Escalona said survivors could "hear the screams of children, women, everyone."

Houses destroyed; family members, friends lost

In the port town of Talcahuano, Mayor Gaston Saavedra said 80 per cent of the 180,000 residents are homeless following the quake.

"The port is destroyed. The streets, collapsed. City buildings, destroyed," said Saavedra.

Talcahuano resident Marioli Gatica and her family were sitting on the floor of her home when the tsunami crashed into its walls, tearing it apart.

"We were sitting there one moment and the next I looked up into the water and saw cables and furniture floating," Gatica said.

Her 11-year-old daughter survived the disaster by clinging to a tree while the wave retreated.

The family lost Gatica's 76-year-old mother, Nery Valdebenito, who she believes is trapped underneath her home.

Further north in the village of Dichato, Mayor Eduardo Aguilera said some residents fled for higher ground in advance of the tsunami threat, but returned too early and were caught by the giant waves.

Aguilera said 800 houses were destroyed and 49 village residents are still missing.

Several hours north in the coastal town of Constitucion, journalist Dominic Phillips said the region was "one of the worst-hit towns" in Saturday's disaster.

"There are a lot of wooden houses on the seafront which were completely destroyed. In the bay front area, along the beach, I saw massive devastation -- trucks overturned, houses destroyed, buildings reduced to just piles of rubble," he told CTV News Channel, speaking by telephone from Talca, Chile.

In Concepcion, the city hit hardest by the quake, authorities were still unable to restore power and police were trying to keep looting under control.

Nearly all of the city's markets had been ransacked for people looking for basic necessities including food, water and toilet paper.

Troops had imposed curfews in Concepcion, which were approved by Bachelet.

Restoring power for city residents also remains a challenge, Crooks said.

"They still don't have any power and we're a couple of days into this now," Crooks told CTV's Canada AM by telephone.

"The government has said that the problem with power is not generation or transmission, but it's the distribution lines that were just mostly destroyed. So, they're having to go street-by-street, house-by-house and literally reconnect everything."

Source:edmonton.ctv.ca/

Chile earthquake: A political storm brews

Mexico City; and Santiago, Chile
Chile's political transition next week – in which conservative president-elect Sebastian Piñera will take office, ending 20 years of rule by the Concertacion leftist alliance – would have been a landmark event even without Saturday's 8.8 Chile earthquake.
But the massive tremblor that rocked this nation 13 days before President Michelle Bachelet leaves office has added more political strife as the transition nears.

By and large, Chile has come together in the midst of its worst natural disaster in decades – a relief to residents who are seeking a unified voice as they begin to rebuild their lives. But the jockeying for power between Ms. Bachelet and Mr. Piñera, who criticized the lack of security in the immediate aftermath of the quake, hints at tougher political times ahead.

IN PICTURES: Images from the magnitude-8.8 earthquake in Chile

“Bachelet has 11 more days in government. It is logical that from the beginning of the earthquake, she should have asked Piñera to be a part of [recovery efforts] for continuity,” says Oscar Godoy, a political science professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. “In her first public appearance, when so many people hoped that she said, ‘you can count on the [incoming] president,’ she did not.”

Piñera frozen out at the beginning?
After not receiving an invitation to partake in the first discussions after the Feb. 27 quake, says Mr. Godoy, Pinera and Bachelet finally met on Sunday. Since then, ministers from both governments' cabinets have been meeting to discuss recovery operations – after the quake, and a tsunami moments afterwards, left more than 700 people dead and up to 2 million displaced.

Many Chileans expressed relief that political differences seemed to be placed on hold for now. “Most do not want the topic to be politicized,” says Camilo Navarro, a resident of Santiago. “We all have to be on the same side, supporter or opponent. We are all Chileans.”

Their cooperation today is an effort to unify the country in the midst of disaster, but also a practical matter. “They arrived at the [conclusion] that all the energies should be focused on reconstruction,” says Ricardo Israel, a political expert at the Autonomous University of Chile.

Source:csmonitor.com/

Chilean city's curfew continues after quake

An overnight curfew in the Chilean city of Concepcion was extended until noon local time Tuesday as looting continued in the aftermath of Saturday's massive earthquake.

The 8.8-magnitude quake has killed at least 723 people and damaged at least 500,000 homes.

The World Health Organization says it expects those grim figures to rise as communication and transportation improve and allow rescue workers to contact hard-to-reach communities.

In Concepcion, the country's second-largest city, markets were sacked on Sunday and looting continued on Monday, prompting government officials to impose the curfew and deploy close to 7,000 troops to patrol the streets.

One man was reportedly shot and killed, and about 160 people have been arrested in the city as police try to maintain order.

Rescue workers were still searching for survivors amid the rubble in Concepcion.
Michael Black, a Santiago aid worker with World Vision, a non-government agency, said the death toll could reach 1,000.

“We thought in the first 24 hours that we were coping with it,” Black said. “Now we’re finding out every hour that the magnitude of this is gigantic.”

The quake also damaged both airports and roads, including the Pan-American Highway, Chile's main north-south thoroughfare

President Michelle Bachelet made an official request for aid on Monday, saying the country need generators, water purification systems and satellite phones to continue relief operations.

Chile's neighbours have led the way in pledging aid. Argentina says it is sending six aircraft loaded with a field hospital, 55 doctors and water treatment plants, while Brazilan President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also pledged to send a field hospital and aid during a brief visit on Monday.

Peruvian President Alan García is scheduled to meet with Bachelet on Tuesday after pledging to send a field hospital and 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is also scheduled to meet with Bachelet on Tuesday at Santiago airport, part of a previously arranged five-country Latin American trip.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon issued an update on Monday night saying there have been no reports of Canadians seriously affected by the earthquake.

"We have been able to locate 520 Canadians in Chile and are actively trying to establish contact with 337 Canadians in the region who have not yet been located," Cannon said.

He said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas) Peter Kent had met with his Chilean counterpart to discuss Chile's needs.

Source:cbc.ca/

Chile Asks for International Aid as Looting Spreads After Quake

March 2 (Bloomberg) -- Chile asked for international aid to recover from the 8.8-magnitude earthquake that killed at least 723 people in the South American country as people scrounged for food in hard-hit areas and looters emptied supermarkets.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives in Chile today to offer support as the country works to repair billions of dollars in damage following the Feb. 27 temblor. Chile asked the United Nations for mobile bridges, electric generators, water purification systems and field kitchens. Brazil will send a field hospital and rescue teams to Chile, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said yesterday during a visit to Santiago.

Bands of looters roamed the streets of Concepcion and the port city of Talcahuano, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) away, emptying supermarkets, stores and homes of food, appliances, and clothes. People collected water from drainage ditches and muddy ponds as taps ran dry and electricity was out for a third day.

Rescuers dug through rubble in the hardest hit areas, including Concepcion, a metropolitan region of about 1 million people 115 kilometers from the epicenter of the powerful earthquake. Military personnel are combing Chile’s coast for people affected by tsunami waves spawned by the quake.

“The scenario changes with each aftershock and each passing hour, but due to the conditions we’re working in and the good weather, we can’t lose hope,” said Santiago fireman Captain Juan Carlos Subercaseaux, who was in Concepcion to assist. He and his team were trying to gain access to a 15-story building that collapsed with dozens of people inside.

Maintaining Hope

Antonio Fuenzalida, 48, watched as firemen cut a hole into the side of the building close to where his nephew Jose Luis Leon’s apartment stood. Earlier, the firemen had pulled out some of his nephew’s clothes.

“I hope he’s alive and in an open space inside,” Fuenzalida said. “We’re trying not to lose hope.”

At least 48 people may be still inside, including a couple on the ninth floor, where rescuers heard tapping, Subercaseaux said. Firemen have pulled nine bodies from the building.

The total economic cost may be as much as $30 billion, or about 15 percent of the country’s gross domestic product, according to estimates by disaster-scenario modeler Eqecat Inc. Insured losses may amount to $3 billion to $8 billion, Eqecat said.

Finance Minister Andres Velasco declined yesterday to give estimates for losses, saying the ministry wants to see data first. The government is focused now on getting help to victims, he said.

Economic Outlook

Bank of America cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 4 percent from a previous estimate of 4.7 percent.

Central Bank President Jose De Gregorio said Chile’s monetary policy will remain expansive in the aftermath of the quake, telling reporters that policy makers will keep borrowing costs at an “appropriate” level to finance the rebuilding.

The government extended a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. in Concepcion, and broadened it to other cities closer to the quake’s epicenter such as Talca. The military deployed more troops and equipment, including armored personnel carriers that patrolled the streets of Concepcion.

Military commanders said groups of thieves were banding together and moving from business to business, leading mobs of people searching for food and water.

Acrid Smoke

“These are thieves who are taking advantage of the breakdown in order to steal from homes and businesses,” said naval marine First Lt. Francisco Gazategui, as he returned from leading eight soldiers on an all-night patrol.

A plume of acrid smoke billowed into the sky from a supermarket as looters ran off with armloads of food, water and clothes. An army truck pulled up and 16 soldiers in combat gear and assault rifles jumped out to pursue looters and secure the store so firefighters could put out the blaze.

“It’s overwhelming for us because we have no water and our resources are stretched thin,” said Captain Fernando Cartes, who commands a firehouse in Talcahuano. “The horrible part is it’s not the earthquake that started the fires, but looters.”

Of the 723 dead, 544 died in the Maule region, the National Emergency Office said. The region’s more than 900,000 people still have no access to running water and little access to electric power, the emergency office said. Sixty-four of the confirmed dead are in the BioBio region, including Concepcion.

Aftershocks

In the almost three days since the quake struck in the early-morning hours of Feb. 27, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded at least 121 aftershocks of magnitude 5.0 or greater. Eight of these aftershocks have magnitudes of 6.0 or greater.

Chile stocks fell the most in almost a month yesterday, the biggest drop among the world’s 50 largest markets, led by Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA, the nation’s biggest power generator, and Lan Airlines SA, the country’s largest carrier.

Salfacorp SA, Chile’s biggest building company, jumped on speculation it will benefit from increased business.

Chile’s peso pared a retreat of as much as 1 percent, losing less than 0.1 percent. Currency trading grinded to a near halt at noon as many traders and support staff at the country’s banks and brokerages left early to check on their families.

Endesa SA’s Chilean unit said about 13 percent of its clients are without power. Two oil refineries owned by Empresa Nacional de Petroleo, Chile’s state oil company, were shut down.

Copper Production

Chilean state copper miner Codelco said its Andina mine was close to resuming some production, as rival Anglo American Plc also ramped up output. Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, reopened its 381,000-ton El Teniente mine after restoring electricity to the mine in central Chile.

Most of Chile’s copper deposits and port facilities are in the northern half of the country and had no reports of damage.

Concerns about supply caused copper for May delivery to climb 6.6 cents, or 2 percent, yesterday to $3.35 a pound on the New York Mercantile Exchange’s Comex unit.

Some flights are arriving at the Santiago airport while outgoing air traffic remains closed, Chile’s national emergency service said. Lan Airlines will run a partial flight schedule until March 4, the company said on its Web site. Lan canceled sales of plane tickets to and from Santiago until March 7.

The port of Valparaiso resumed operations at four dock areas, keeping four others shut while possible structural damage is evaluated, operator Puerto Valparaiso said on its Web site.

Stringent building codes and the most highly engineered building inventory in Latin America helped mitigate damage, said Boston-based Air Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling firm that estimated more than $2 billion in insured losses for insurers.

The Feb. 27 earthquake was the world’s fifth strongest since 1900, carrying a force 500 times stronger than the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that last month devastated Haiti, in terms of the energy released, according to the USGS.

--With assistance from James Attwood in Santiago, Matthew Craze on Easter Island, Andrea Jaramillo in Bogota, Ye Xie in New York, Bill Varner at the United Nations, Andres R. Martinez in Mexico City and Rodrigo Orihuela and Bill Faries in Buenos Aires. Editors: Brendan Walsh, Patrick Harrington

Source:businessweek.com/

Chile relief groups concerned with donor fatigue soon after Haiti earthquake

When the Haiti earthquake struck, visitors flooded Charity Navigator’s website for tips on where to send their donations.

This weekend, as the devastation in Chile splashed across television screens, the online traffic didn’t jump.

"We’re not seeing that this time," said Sandra Miniutti, the vice president of the Mahwah-based nonprofit agency, which evaluates charities. "We’ve begun to look at the issue of donor fatigue."

Coming so soon after the Haiti disaster, which killed more than 220,000 people, the Chile earthquake may struggle for its share of the limelight, raising concerns among aid groups that fewer wallets will open even as charities try to man relief efforts in both countries.

The extent of damage in Chile remains unclear. The death toll rose to 723, with 19 others missing, the National Emergency Office announced Monday, in a magnitude-8.8 quake that President Michelle Bachelet called "an emergency without parallel in Chile’s history."

But experts cautioned that Chile may not need as much help as Haiti. The level of destruction in the Caribbean nation was much more widespread and intense, and richer Chile has more resources to handle the disaster relief.

"They’re going to be totally different responses," said Saundra Schimmelpfennig, the director of Utah-based Charity Rater. "Chile had a lot fewer buildings, hospitals, government offices that were damaged."

Aid groups said they were ready to assist in Chile even as they maintain unprecedented efforts in Haiti.

"The system is designed for this kind of thing," said Ray Shepherd, chief executive officer for the American Red Cross of Northern New Jersey. "It’s rare that only one disaster happens at one time."

The biggest international aid organizations have learned the traumatic lessons of 2005, when a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, an earthquake in Pakistan and Hurricane Katrina stretched resources.

"We’re a lot better organized and prepared with our emergency response plan than we were five years ago," said Brian Sobelman of Save the Children. The organization has drawn staffers from the United Kingdom, Spain and Bolivia to assess the damage in Chile.

But fewer donations may arrive in a deep recession after Americans have already shelled out nearly $1 billion for Haiti, Miniutti said.

Weehawken resident Sarah Lillo is not deterred. The 25-year-old, whose mother-in-law runs the only Chilean restaurant in the state, said there are plans for a fundraiser there this weekend.

"I have family friends who got through by e-mail and said it felt like the end of the world to them," she said. "I cannot sit around and let this occur. I need to do something about this."


Source:nj.com

Monday, March 1, 2010

Chile sends army against looters, deaths hit 708

CONCEPCION, Chile — Chile's president sent the army to help police attack looting on Sunday and appealed for international help in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people.

President Michelle Bachelet announced the sharply higher new death toll after a six-hour meeting with aides and emergency officials struggling to cope with one of the most powerful earthquakes in centuries.

"We face a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" for Chile to recover, Bachelet told a news conference at the presidential palace, which itself suffered minor cracks in Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake.

She said that a growing number of people were listed as missing and she signed a decree giving the military control over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters have pillaged supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks.

The president, who leaves office on March 11, also said the country would accept some of the offers of aid that have poured in from around the world.

She said the country needs field hospitals and temporary bridges, water purification plants and damage assessment experts — as well as rescuers to help relieve workers who have been laboring frantically for more than a day.

Officials earlier had said about 300 were known dead, with 500,000 homes severely damaged.

A tsunami caused by the quake that swept across the Pacific killed several people on a Chilean island and devastated other coastal communities near the epicenter, but caused little damage in other countries, after precautionary evacuations of hundreds of thousands of people. The tsunami warning was lifted a day after the earthquake.

Police said more than 100 people died in Concepcion, the largest city near the epicenter with more than 200,000 people. The university was among the buildings that caught fire around the city as gas and power lines snapped. Many streets were littered with rubble from edifices and inmates escaped from a nearby prison.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to scatter people who forced open the doors of the Lider supermarket in Concepcion, hauling away everything from diapers to dehydrated milk to a kitchen stove.

Across the Bio Bio River in San Pedro, others cleared out a shopping mall. A video store was set ablaze, two automatic teller machines were broken open, a bank was robbed and a supermarket emptied, its floor littered with mashed plums, scattered dog food and smashed liquor bottles.

The largest building damaged in Concepcion was a newly opened 15-story apartment that toppled backward, trapping an estimated 60 people inside apartments where the floors suddenly became vertical and the contents of every room slammed down onto rear walls.

"It fell at the moment the earthquake began," said 4th Lt. Juan Schulmeyer of Concepcion's 7th Firefighter Company, pointing to where the foundation collapsed. A full 24 hours later, only 16 people had been pulled out alive, and six bodies had been recovered.

Rescuers heard a woman call out at 11 p.m. Saturday from what seemed like the 6th floor, but hours later they were making slow progress in reaching her. Rescuers were working with two power saws and an electric hammer on a generator, but their supply of gas was running out and it was taking them a frustrating hour and a half to cut each hole through the concrete.

"It's very difficult working in the dark with aftershocks, and inside it's complicated. The apartments are totally destroyed. You have to work with great caution," said Paulo Klein, who was leading a group of rescue specialists from Puerto Montt. They flew in on an air force plane with just the equipment they could carry. Heavy equipment was coming later along with 12 other rescuers.

The quake tore apart houses, bridges and highways, and Chileans near the epicenter were thrown from their beds by the force of the mega-quake, which was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) to the east.

The full extent of damage remained unclear. Ninety aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater shuddered across the disaster prone Andean nation within 24 hours of the initial quake. One was nearly as powerful as Haiti's devastating Jan. 12 earthquake.

In the village of Reumen, a tractor trailer slammed into a dangling pedestrian overpass and 40 tons of concrete and steel crunched the truck, covering Chile's main highway with smashed grapes, tomatoes and cucumbers — one of several overpasses toppled along the highway.

Truck driver Jaime Musso, 53, thought his truck was being buffeted by strong winds and by the time he saw the overpass hanging down over Highway 5 there was no chance of stopping, so he aimed for the spot where he thought he would cause the least damage and brought down the overpass onto his truck. He said he survived "by millimeters."

As night fell Saturday, about a dozen men and children sat around a bonfire in the remains of their homes in Curico, a town 122 miles (196 kilometers) south of the capital, Santiago.

"We were sleeping when we felt the quake, very strongly. I got up and went out the door. When I looked back my bed was covered in rubble," said survivor Claudio Palma.

In the capital Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) to the northeast of the epicenter, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars.

Santiago's damaged airport managed to receive five flights on Sunday, though no outbound flights were possible. The subway also partially reopened.

Chile's main seaport, in Valparaiso, was closed while damage was assessed. Two oil refineries shut down. The state-run Codelco, the world's largest copper producer, halted work at two of its mines, but said it expected them to resume operations quickly.

The jolt set off a tsunami that swamped San Juan Bautista village on Robinson Crusoe Island off Chile, killing at least five people and leaving 11 missing, said Guillermo de la Masa, head of the government emergency bureau for the Valparaiso region.

On the mainland, several huge waves inundated part of the major port city of Talcahuano, near hard-hit Concepcion. A large boat was swept more than a block inland.

State television showed scenes of devastation in coastal towns, where houses were blasted away by water, leaving scraps of wood and metal — and complaints of homeless quake victims that officials had not yet brought water or food.

The surge of water raced across the Pacific, setting off alarm sirens in Hawaii, Polynesia and Tonga, but the tsunami waves proved small and did little damage as they reached as far as Japan.

Robert Williams, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said the Chilean quake was hundreds of times more powerful than Haiti's magnitude-7 quake, though it was deeper and cost far fewer lives.

The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and made 2 million homeless. Saturday's quake matched a 1906 temblor off the Ecuadorean coast as the seventh-strongest ever recorded in the world.

Associated Press writers Roberto Candia in Talca, Chile, Eva Vergara in Curico, Chile, and Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.

Source:AFP

Chilean military takes control of quake-hit cities

The Chilean military has taken control of towns and cities affected by the earthquake, it was reported today, imposing curfews and guarding shops from looters as the death toll from the disaster rose to more than 700.

The Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet, signed a decree putting the military in charge of security in the province of Concepción, where looters have targeted markets and supermarkets, hitting food and water supplies.

"We are facing a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort [for Chile to recover]," Bachelet said after meeting ministers and generals at the quake-damaged La Moneda Palace.

Concerns are growing over Britons missing in the aftermath of the catastrophe.

An estimated 65,000 British people visit Chile each year, and a number of UK holidaymakers remain unaccounted for. A Foreign Office spokesman said there had been "no reports of any casualties" so far.

The Surfer's Cottage, an eco-cottage for surfers in Pichilemu, central Chile, listed five Britons among its missing.

UK charity workers were due to arrive in Chile today to help with aid efforts.


The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, will visit the country tomorrow on a previously scheduled trip unrelated to the quake.

"Our hemisphere comes together in times of crisis, and we will stand side by side with the people of Chile in this emergency," she said.

As aftershocks measuring up to 7.5 continued to batter the country, rescuers arrived at coastal cities to find that entire fishing villages had been washed away.

There were reports that 350 people had died in the town of Constitución, which was hit first by the earthquake and then by a tsunami.


The death toll was expected to rise dramatically because of the number of missing people. Identification of the dead has been hampered because most were sleeping when the quake struck and were not carrying any personal documents.

More than 100 people remained trapped inside a wrecked 14-storey building in Concepción, Chile's second largest city, 40 miles north-west of the epicentre.

The new building was only half occupied, but an estimated 20 bodies were removed from the rubble, and teams of firefighters were continuing to search the wreckage for signs of life.

An estimated 500,000 residential buildings have been severely damaged by the quake, leaving nearly one in eight residents homeless.

As food, water and fuel ran out, looting erupted in Concepción and police initially attempted to stop the looters using teargas.

A pitched battle erupted inside one supermarket, ending when police and supermarket officials allowed residents to remove essential items free of charge.

Food warehouses were also looted, and Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, the mayor of Concepción, warned: "We are going to have social explosion if aid is not received today."

The Chilean air force sent a 747 filled with police to the region in an attempt to regain control, while military roadblocks were set up outside some cities in an effort to prevent outsiders from joining the looting.

The cost of the quake damage was estimated to be $25-$30bn (£16-£20bn) by Eqecat, a firm based in Oakland, California, that specialises in disaster management software.

Experts at the company said Chile's history of major earthquakes and solid construction had been instrumental in preventing far more deaths, with building codes including earthquake-resistant standards in all new construction.

The Chilean president-elect, Sebastián Piñera, who takes office in less than two weeks, has worked closely with the outgoing Bachelet administration to organise long-term relief.

On Saturday, he asked key disaster relief and government officials to remain in office during the early part of his administration.

He also called for major sanctions against and investigations of construction companies involved in new housing projects that have collapsed.

Ricardo Ortega, the head of the Chilean air force, said yesterday a commercial airline service had been partially re-established and aircraft were now being allowed to land at Santiago's international airport.

With many major bridges destroyed and entire sections of Route 5, the main north-south highway, twisted and torn, delivery of relief aid to many areas has been made difficult and in some cases impossible.

Fears of a tsunami roaring across the Pacific Ocean were quelled yesterday when waves that hit Japan proved to be minimal.

Hundreds of thousands of people fled shorelines for higher ground after the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, based in Hawaii, warned 53 countries and territories that a tsunami was imminent.

After the centre lifted its warning, some countries kept their own watches in place.

Source:guardian.co.uk/

Copper price rising after Chile quake

SANTIAGO–Major copper mines slowly resumed operations on Sunday after central Chile suffered an earthquake that limited power supplies, which analysts fear could curtail exports by the No. 1 producer.

Ricardo Alvarez, manager at Chile's fourth-largest mine, El Teniente, said the recovery pace of output would depend on the electricity supply, which was partial.

Alvarez said the mine could slow extraction if power lags.

Copper prices surged in early trading Monday on supply worries caused by the 8.8 quake in Chile, jumping 5.6 per cent on the London Metal Exchange.

The tremor killed hundreds, with death tolls climbing, most of them south of the northern mine zone that forced Codelco to shut El Teniente and its Andina copper mine.

Production resumed at Anglo-American Los Bronces copper mine, union leader Eduardo Rocco said.

An Anglo American spokesman said there were no initial reports of major damage at the two mines, which together produce some 280,000 tonnes a year.

Chile's biggest mines produce a third of the world's copper.

Analysts feared supply disruptions from mid-sized deposits nearer Santiago would stoke prices.

Anglo American and Codelco halted output at four mines in total

Source:thestar.com/