Death Toll Tops 500 In Peru Earthquake Disaster

Posted August 17, 2007 12:00 pm.

This article is more than 5 years old.

The death toll has topped 500 as official estimates continued to pour in from Peru on Friday. A powerful, 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck the southeastern part of the South American country late Wednesday night, destroying buildings and wreaking havoc.

The worst tragedy came after a church came tumbling down on worshippers, burying at least 200 people. In the port city of Pisco, searchers at San Clemente church pulled at least 60 bodies out of the ruins and lined them up on the plaza. Doctors struggled to help more than 1,500 injured, including hundreds who waited on cots in the open air, fearing more aftershocks would send buildings crashing down.

Destruction from Wednesday’s quake was centered in Peru’s southern desert, near the oasis city of Ica and nearby Pisco, about 125 miles southeast of the capital of Lima. Few in the traumatized crowds would talk with journalists. One man shouted at the bodies of his wife and two small daughters as they were pulled from the rubble: “Why did you go? Why?”

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

As dusk fell, Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said finding survivors seemed increasingly unlikely.”We keep losing hope of finding someone alive after 24 hours have passed,” he laments.

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.

Survivors desperate for food and water ransacked a public market, while other mobs looted a refrigerated trailer and blocked aid trucks, prompting the country’s president to appeal for calm on Friday.

Aid finally reached the disaster zone Friday morning, bringing relief to a city that had largely fended for itself for 36 hours, but hopes of finding more survivors has all but disappeared. Food, water, tents and blankets arrived and Peruvian soldiers distributed silver coffins as the first mass funerals were being held.

Scientists say the quake was a “megathrust” – a type of earthquake similar to the catastrophic Indian Ocean temblor in 2004 that generated deadly tsunami waves.

Peru’s consul general in Toronto has set up a website and bank account for relief funds. Money is welcome, but other items – like bedding, clothing, tents and most especially medicines are badly needed. Other relief agencies are also taking up the cause.

Here’s where you can help.

Sismo Peru 2007
Royal Bank
Acct # 06702-1134329

Other ways to donate:

World Vision

Tel: 1-800-268-5528
Canadians sponsor 13,900 children in Peru and as of now, they are reported to be safe.