Earthquake and tsunami in Chile: Divers hunt for bodies off Chile coast
Divers searched for bodies in debris-clogged waters off Chile's central coast Thursday, five days after a massive earthquake and tsunami, as authorities rolled out a huge aid effort.
Teams also enlisted rescue dogs to comb the fetid coastline, where emergency personnel expected to find more lifeless victims of the giant waves that swept hundreds to their deaths. The stench of death was everywhere, so overwhelming that locals donned masks.
While thousands of Chilean troops largely managed to quell the looting that had gripped the quake zone, many survivors in the decimated seaside resort of Constitucion and other hard-hit towns spent a tense night outside, again, after powerful aftershocks sent terrified people scrambling for the hills. Some lighted bonfires to ward off criminals.
Despite being considered a model of political and economic stability in Latin America, Chile has struggled to cope with the scale of a catastrophe thought to have cost tens of billions of dollars . President Michelle Bachelet, who has deployed 14,000 troops to the disaster zone, said it would take three to four years to rebuild after the "devastating" quake leveled buildings, tore bridges apart and collapsed highways, killing at least 802 people.
"There are rural areas where everything has tumbled to the ground... infrastructure has been destroyed," she told Santiago's ADN radio just a week before handing power over to Sebastian Pinera for a four-year term.
"Thousands of Chileans have lost not only loved ones, but their homes and belongings, while some firms have suffered significant losses," she added, acknowledging that the country would need credits from the World Bank and other major international lenders for reconstruction. Related article: Chileans grow impatient for aid
Many of Chile's lifeline industries, from agriculture and fishing to tourism and trade, were decimated by the disaster. Thousands of traumatized earthquake survivors, some still trying to identify loved ones claimed by killer waves, rushed to higher ground Wednesday during a brief tsunami warning sparked by more of the 200-some aftershocks that have rattled the South American nation since Saturday's huge 8.8 temblor.
Panic came just as thousands of troops, with the help of a strict curfew, finally appeared to have restored some semblance of normality in Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, after days of post-quake unrest. Traffic lights blinked on and neon signs came back to life as electricity was restored and one of the area's biggest supermarkets announced it was opening for business.
With armored military vehicles guarding strategic points, soldiers and volunteers distributed food rations and potable water, easing public anxiety after locals were left to defend themselves for days from armed gangs and arson attacks. Chileans had not seen so many troops in the streets since the end of Augusto Pinochet's 17-year military dictatorship in 1990. Scene: Death and devastation on Chile's wave-raked coast
Deputy Interior Minister Patricio Rosende said around 9,000 tonnes of relief aid had been distributed so far in affected areas, with hundreds more tonnes due later Thursday. But families in the more remote parts of the surrounding Maule and Bio Bio regions complained they were being ignored and called desperately for supplies and medicine for children suffering from fevers and other ailments.
"In the countryside, we have received nothing," said Juana Rodriguez, a resident of Puerta Verde, a hamlet of 36 families not far from Constitucion. "We need water, diapers, milk," she pleaded.
The toll, so far largely made up of people killed in the tsunami that followed the quake, is expected to rise sharply as coastal areas account for hundreds of missing. In Constitucion, a place once reputed as a holiday paradise, sobbing relatives visited the morgue to identify swollen remains. "Most of the bodies are badly bloated and mutilated, difficult to identify. The stench is terrible," said an army lieutenant. "We're expecting more."
Aid workers described scenes of utter devastation as they reached some of the smaller coastal villages. "In Dichato, there's nothing, nothing," said Paula Saez of World Vision, a Christian aid group distributing water, food, blankets and baby diapers. "There is death everywhere: dead dogs in the street, dust, garbage. It's devastated."
