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/

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/

Rescuers search for Chile quake survivors; at least 392 people killed

Reporting from Bogota, Colombia - Rescuers searched for survivors on Sunday, a day after one of the biggest earthquakes in recorded history rocked Chile, killing at least 392 people, leaving many more missing, toppling buildings and freeways, and setting off sirens thousands of miles away.

Authorities lifted tsunami warnings Sunday after smaller-than-feared waves washed shores across the Pacific, including Southern California, Hawaii and Japan.

Scattered looting broke out Sunday in some of the most heavily damaged areas of Chile, where residents were without water or electricity. Crowds overran a supermarket in the city of Concepcion, which sustained widespread damage, and were making off with food, water and diapers but also television sets.

Police in armored vehicles sprayed looters with water cannon and made several arrests, mostly of young men. "The people are desperate and say the only way is to come get stuff for themselves," Concepcion resident Patricio Martinez told reporters. "We have money to buy it but the big stores are closed, so what are we supposed to do?"

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared parts of the country "catastrophe zones" in the wake of the magnitude 8.8 quake, which was centered offshore, about 70 miles north of the port city of Concepcion.

With images of Haiti's devastation from an earthquake last month still fresh, the world woke up to a new disaster and fears of another catastrophic toll. But the Chile quake's epicenter was relatively deep, at 21.7 miles, and building codes are strict in a country that 50 years ago was struck by the biggest earthquake ever recorded: a magnitude 9.5.

Nonetheless, Bachelet said in an address to the nation Saturday night that a million buildings had been damaged. And with television stations showing topsy-turvy structures, severed bridges and highways whose pavement looked as if it had been tilled by some giant farm machine, the death toll was expected to rise.

Concepcion resident Alberto Rozas said his building began to shake and he grabbed his daughter in terror amid shattering glass and an ungodly roar.

"It was awful," said Rozas, who lives next to a 15-story apartment building that was reduced to rubble. "The only thing I did right was throw clothes on the floor so my daughter and I could escape without ruining our feet. But we're still covered with cuts."

As a flurry of 30 aftershocks, some measuring greater than magnitude 6.0, continued to strike the region all day, Chile's Interior Ministry said tsunami surges reaching heights of 10 feet hit the nation's Juan Fernandez Islands, leaving three people dead and 13 missing.

Memories of the tsunami that was unleashed on Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean five years ago haunted governments across the Pacific on Saturday. In Hawaii, 100,000 people were evacuated to higher ground, and the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet sent four warships out to sea as a precaution against damage near shore at Pearl Harbor.

A series of small 3-foot tsunamis hit Hawaii's Big Island shortly after 1 p.m., churning up sediment but causing no apparent damage. Early Sunday, Japan's Meteorological Agency warned that a "major" tsunami of up to 10 feet could hit northern coastal areas, although initial waves that reached outlying islands posed little threat.

The U.S. moved briskly to offer assistance to Chile. President Obama spoke with Bachelet to offer condolences, praising the country's quick response and reiterating the United States' readiness to aid in rescue and recovery.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she planned to visit the region Sunday. "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.

Some observers, however, worried that international relief efforts could be stretched thin by the continuing response to the Haiti earthquake, which left more than 215,000 people dead and a million homeless.

In Chile, television images showed collapsed highway overpasses and buildings in southern Santiago, the capital, and in Concepcion, 300 miles to the south. Bachelet was reported to be headed to the region to inspect the damage.

President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who will take office in two weeks, told reporters that in addition to scores of deaths, the country suffered damage to its infrastructure, including highways, airports and housing.

"This earthquake has delivered a tremendous blow to Chilean society," Pinera said, adding he would request emergency funds totaling 2% of the budget to help rebuild. "Our government will do everything for the recovery and to accelerate reconstruction."

Santiago's international airport will be closed at least through Monday, officials said. Although the runways are in good condition, the control tower and customs facilities suffered extensive damage, officials said.

Key structures in Santiago, including ministry buildings, suffered heavy damage, said Education Minister Monica Jimenez. Government employees will be asked to stay home Monday as officials assesses structural safety, she said. Public schools that were to have reopened Monday after summer vacation are now scheduled to reopen March 8.

The quake, lasting 30 seconds or more, struck about 3:30 a.m. Saturday. Santiago residents, many of them in their pajamas, poured into the streets.

A chemical fire at a factory raged out of control and there was smoke in much of the city. Telephone service and electricity were still out in one-third of the capital as of the afternoon and communication was problematic because of the collapse of several cellphone towers.

Santiago faces possible mass transit chaos, with the city's subway system closed indefinitely while the tracks are inspected.

Bachelet urged drivers to not use major thoroughfares because traffic lights were out and many pedestrian bridges had collapsed.

Major damage was reported in Concepcion, the country's second-largest city and the one closest to the epicenter. Several fires due to gas leaks were reported. A multi-story building also collapsed.

The mayor of Concepcion, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, described her city as "Dante-esque" in the aftermath of the quake, saying two bridges over the Biobio River had collapsed and others were damaged. She said officials still were not sure of the death toll.

The city is home to one of the largest universities in the South American nation, Universidad de Concepcion, a public school with a decidedly liberal student body. Its grounds are often the site of socialist protests.

Kraul is a special correspondent. Times staff writers Janet Hook in Washington and Robert Faturechi in Los Angeles, and special correspondents Andres D'Alessandro in Buenos Aires and Eva Vergara and Lauren Williams in Santiago contributed to this report.

Source:latimes.com/

Chile won't participate in Closing Ceremonies

Athletes and coaches from Chile are planning to skip the Olympic Closing Ceremonies following a magnitude-8.8 earthquake that has devastated their country.

Team spokesman Luis Alberto Santa Cruz said Saturday morning that the athletes and coaches are trying to get home from Vancouver as soon as possible because of the quake.

Chile has three Alpine skiers representing the country at the Vancouver Games. Noelle Barahona, Maui Gayme and Jorge Mandru are all finished competing, so they won't miss any remaining events.

Santa Cruz says that some of the coaches and athletes have been able to contact family and so far, they have found out that their loved ones are fine.

The quake sent potentially deadly waves across the ocean and a tsunami warning - the highest alert level - was issued for Hawaii.


Source:ctvolympics.ca/