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Quake toll reaches 450

"The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets" in devastated southwest Peru.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published August 17, 2007

ICA, Peru - The death toll rose to 450 on Thursday in the magnitude 8 earthquake that devastated cities of adobe and brick in Peru's southern desert. Survivors wearing blankets against the winter cold walked like ghosts through the ruins.

Dust-covered dead were pulled out and laid in rows in the streets, or beneath bloodstained sheets at damaged hospitals and morgues. Doctors struggled to help more than 1,500 injured, including hundreds who waited on cots in the open air, fearing more aftershocks would send the structures crashing down.

Destruction was centered in Peru's southern desert, at the oasis city of Ica and the nearby port of Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital, Lima.

The United Nations said the death toll was expected to rise beyond the 450 reported by Peru.

"It is quite likely that the numbers will continue to go up since the destruction of the houses in this area is quite total," said U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom.

Pisco's mayor said at least 200 people were buried in the rubble of a church where they were attending a service. The historic Senor de Luren church was among several heavily damaged in Ica, where at least 57 bodies were taken to the morgue.

Services were packed when the quake struck at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday because Aug. 15 is celebrated by Roman Catholics as the day the Virgin Mary rose to heaven.

"The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets," Pisco Mayor Juan Mendoza told a radio station. "We don't have lights, water, communications. Most houses have fallen. Churches, stores, hotels - everything is destroyed."

At least 14 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater followed the initial quake. The tremors caused renewed anxiety, though there were no reports of additional damage or injuries.

President Alan Garcia flew to Ica, a city of 120,000 where a quarter of the buildings collapsed, and declared a state of emergency. He said flights were reaching Ica to take in aid and take out the injured. Government doctors called off their national strike to assist.

"There has been a good international response even without Peru asking for it, and they've been very generous," Garcia said in Pisco, where so many buildings fell that streets were covered with small mountains of adobe bricks and broken furniture.

Electricity, water and phone service were down in much of southern Peru. The government rushed police, soldiers and doctors to the area, but traffic was paralyzed by giant cracks and fallen power lines on the Pan-American Highway. Large boulders blocked Peru's Central Highway to the Andes mountains.

Hundreds of injured lay side by side on cots on walkways and in gardens outside hospital buildings, kept outside for fear that aftershocks could topple the cracked walls.

"Our services are saturated, and half of the hospital has collapsed," Dr. Huber Malma said as he tended to dozens of patients.

The quake toppled a wall in Chincha's prison, allowing at least 600 prisoners to flee. Only 29 had been recaptured, prisons officials said.

Overstretched police and rescue workers in orange uniforms sought to help survivors trying to get some sleep in the streets amid collapsed adobe homes.

"We're all frightened to return to our houses," Maria Cortez said, staring vacantly at the half of her house that was still standing.

The Peruvian Red Cross arrived in Ica and Pisco 7 1/2 hours after the initial quake, about three times as long as it would normally have taken because of road damage, Red Cross official Giorgio Ferrario said.

In Lima, 95 miles from the epicenter, only one death was recorded. But the furious two minutes of shaking prompted thousands to flee into the streets and sleep in public parks.

"The earth moved differently this time. It made waves, and the earth was like jelly," said Antony Falconi, 27.

Scientists said the quake was a "megathrust" - a type of earthquake similar to the catastrophic Indian Ocean temblor in 2004 that generated deadly tsunami waves. Wednesday's quake caused a tsunami as well, but scientists expected surges of no more than 1.6 feet in faraway Japan.

In general, magnitude 8 quakes are capable of causing tremendous damage. Quakes of magnitude 2.5 to 3 are the smallest generally felt by people, and every increase of one number on the magnitude scale means that the quake's magnitude is 10 times as great.

Fast Facts:

Aid efforts

A look at some of the international aid efforts for Peru after Wednesday's magnitude 8 earthquake:

International Red Cross: Tents, water, other supplies; $205,000.

United Nations: Almost $1-million in aid from several U.N. agencies.

European Community: At least $1.3-million to international aid agencies.

Colombia: Medicine, 20 tons of water, blankets and other aid; 20 rescue workers.

Brazil: Medicine, food and tents.

United States: A $100,000 donation. Two USAID disaster response officials in Peru and a third en route. The U.S. Navy ship Comfort, with a medical staff of 800 and 12 operating rooms, is in Ecuador and could sail to Peru if asked.

Italy: Giving $268,100 to the Red Cross to help distribute emergency medical kits, tents and other aid.

U.N. World Food Program: Sending $500,000 of food already in country, and preparing other shipments.

[Last modified August 17, 2007, 00:48:47]