-
Residents run to open spaces as an aftershock rattles the city of Concepcion - Source: Reuters -
Related
Strong aftershocks rattled south-central Chile, panicking
residents nearly a week after one of the most powerful earthquakes
on record devastated coastal towns and killed hundreds of
people.
The government of outgoing President Michelle Bachelet, facing
criticism for its slow response to the quake, said it was revising
the death toll after authorities mistakenly tallied scores of
missing people who later turned up alive.
Officials said they had now identified 452 victims.
They did not give a number for unidentified bodies or missing
people and backed off a previous figure of more than 800
deaths.
Many people who survived the 8.8-magnitude quake on February 27
were killed hours later by a massive tsunami, outraging Chileans
who say there was no warning the waves were coming.
The Chilean Navy acknowledged there was a breakdown in its
tsunami-alert system and on Friday it fired the head of the agency
in charge of issuing catastrophe warnings.
In ravaged Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, some people ran
out of their houses or jumped out of the vehicles where they had
been sleeping since the quake as seven intense aftershocks shook
the area.
The strongest of the aftershocks was 6.6 in magnitude.
"Some chunks of buildings that were already in bad condition fell
but nothing significant," the top government official in quake-hit
Bio Bio region told local radio.
The February 27 quake and the giant waves destroyed hundreds of
thousands of homes, wrecked bridges and roads and cracked modern
buildings in half in the capital, Santiago.
The disaster also wreaked havoc on some of Chile's famous wineries,
spilling millions of litres of wine from cracked barrels, and
briefly shut down some of the world's richest copper mines.
The Navy said there was no risk of tsunamis from the new
aftershocks.
People did not stray too far into the streets of Concepcion
because the army had imposed a curfew until midday to control
sporadic looting.
"This was the strongest (aftershock) yet. As soon as I felt it, I
thought 'Here we go again'," said Cristian Ruiz, 38, who works in
the fishing industry in Concepcion.
Government criticised
The confusion over the death toll prompted harsh criticism of
Chile's National Emergency Office, known as Onemi, which
President-elect Sebastian Pinera has pledged to overhaul.
In a blog posted on the daily El Mercurio website, the former head
of Onemi, Alberto Maturana, called the agency's handling of the
disaster a comedy of errors.
"The agency has no validity in public opinion, when it is supposed
to be the most credible," he said.
The doubts over the death toll are likely to persist because an
undetermined number of victims were washed out to sea in the
tsunamis and some bodies may never be recovered.
"The number of disappeared is very difficult to determine," said
Patricio Bustos, a government forensics specialist in Talca, a city
in central Chile that was hit hard by the quake.
"It can take a very long time."
In Concepcion, looting was mostly under control as hundreds of
troops patrolled the streets and handed out food and water.
Long lines formed at one of the few grocery stores finally
opened to customers.
In Dichato, a small town just north of Concepcion, two large ships
that were washed ashore by the tsunami sat in a field two km from
the damaged coastline.
After meeting Bachelet on Friday in Santiago, United Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged $14 million and other aid
supplies for the relief effort.
Ban is also scheduled to tour some of the quake areas and meet
Pinera, who will take office on March 11 in a swearing-in ceremony
that will be toned down because of the disaster.
Chile's biggest copper mines were mostly spared by the quake but
its top two oil refineries were hit hard and are still offline,
forcing the country to boost fuel imports. Other key industries
such as pulp, fishing and fruit also took a hit.
The government has shied away from quantifying the damage, which
according to one estimate could reach $30 billion, or about 15% of
the gross domestic product of the world's leading copper
producer.
Finance Minister Andres Velasco said the quake will weigh heavily
on the economy in the coming months but predicted the rebuilding
effort would help drive a robust recovery in the long term, echoing
a pledge from the incoming government.
"We are not only going to rebuild what was destroyed, we are going
to rebuild it with better technology and with better procedures,"
the silver-haired Pinera said on Friday, adding his government
plans to revamp Chile's catastrophe-alert system in hopes of
limiting the death toll from future disasters.
With reconstruction likely to draw billions of dollars into Chile,
financial markets are already pricing in the expected flood of
inflows.
Chile's peso gained more than three percent this week, while its
main stock index rose on Friday for the second straight day.
World News Video
-
Dangerous rush to Everest summit (1:59)
-
Dozens killed in Syrian massacre (2:09)
-
'King of Romance' competes in Eurovision (1:46)
