Peru Quake Victims Battle Hunger, Cold
Pastor Dale Morgan
Peru Quake Victims Battle Hunger, Cold*
Saturday August 25, 2007 11:46 PM
By EDISON LOPEZ
Associated Press Writer
PISCO, Peru (AP) - An unforgiving wind lashes Juan Escate as he huddles
around a bonfire with his three children, chilling him as he ponders how
to fulfill his wife's dying plea.
Last week's magnitude-8 earthquake sent Escate's home on the outskirts
of Pisco tumbling down, burying his wife Doris in rubble as she rushed
their 16-year-old daughter to safety.
``Promise me you'll take care of my children,'' he says were his wife's
last words.
The quake forced Escate and thousands of others in this impoverished
port city on Peru's central coast into crudely constructed shelters. Icy
ocean winds carry sand from the beaches and people keep watch all night
against thieves.
Adults say they are given a handful of rice with some potatoes at
midday. Children receive hot oatmeal for breakfast. Civil Defense has
distributed tents to some survivors, but most are still in flimsy
makeshift shelters near their homes made from pieces of wood and plastic
sheets.
Escate's eyes are fixed on a giant pot of steaming rice and potatoes.
The food is not for him and his hungry neighbors but for the group of
soldiers protecting the homeless families from robbery - aid is more
valuable now than personal belongings.
``I don't know what I'm going to do. My children were left without a
mother and I have to take care of them alone,'' said Escate, his hands
callused from years as a garbage collector. The 16-year-old daughter
survived but suffered a fractured hip and is in a Lima hospital.
``She doesn't know her mother has left us,'' he said, sitting with his
three sons, ages 5, 8 and 10. The youngest was crying, a thick wool
blanket up to his eyes. The other two sat close to their father,
listening intently.
More than 85 percent of the homes here were destroyed and at least 340
people were killed in this city of 90,000 according to Civil Defense
officials. Over all, the earthquake killed 514 in several cities,
according to the Civil Defense.
Wrapped in thick, scratchy blankets, survivors listen to the sound of
the crackling fire that burns on one of the few street corners in the
San Clemente district not blocked by dusty rubble.
Juan Camasca, 37, said 50 of his neighbors were lucky enough to eat a
small piece of chicken after one of the community members slaughtered
his animals to feed them.
He said life is hardest on the outskirts of Pisco, where aid is pouring
in and is available in more than a dozen points throughout the city, but
passing by those just outside.
``The aid came for three days after the earthquake,'' Camasca said.
``They gave us water, hot water even, but they stopped coming.'' He said
he watched his friends unsuccessfully try to flag down trucks full of
food that didn't even slow down.
Last week, a 6-week-old infant died of pneumonia after sleeping with her
family outside their badly damaged home in the nearby province of
Canete. Family members were worried that the house would topple over
from one of the strong aftershocks, which continued for days. They
complained that humanitarian aid did not reach them.
President Alan Garcia announced this week that electricity had returned
to much of the devastated region. But large areas of Pisco remain
without lights. Bonfires illuminate the shadows in the tent cities on
its outskirts. The government has said that rebuilding coastal towns
will cost about $220 million.
Ten people are sleeping in Escate's shelter, lighted by a candle stuck
precariously to a wooden plank. Two soldiers peek through the blanket
that serves as the door, to make sure everyone is safe.
``A group of people who came by car tried to loot here, but the town
drove them out and they were captured,'' said Jorge Huaman, a soldier
patrolling the area, rubbing his hands together to keep warm.
Food is scarce, and government aid has been patchy, especially to rural
areas. U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom, the deputy
emergency relief coordinator, said there is enough water, food, sheeting
and blankets in the country, but that aid efforts here have been poorly
organized.
``There've been many actors in place, and there hasn't been good enough
coordination so that the direction the government has given has been
suitably followed,'' she said Friday.
Garcia's government has also blamed the country's Civil Defense for not
acting quickly and effectively.
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Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations,
contributed to this report.