Images of crumpled buildings in Peru flashed across a television screen Thursday and that country’s new consul general to Denver shook his head and hoped for the best.
“It is so sad that we cannot do anything to stop nature from happening,” Guido Loayza said, sitting in his south Denver office.
The death toll has risen to 510 from the magnitude-8 earthquake that obliterated cities about 125 miles south of Lima, the capital and Loayza’s hometown.
There are an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 Peruvians living in Denver and the surrounding areas, consulate officials said.
Loayza, who became Peru’s top diplomat in Colorado this month, sees his first major duty as organizing a relief effort.
“We are in contact with organizations and prominent Peruvians here for events and to raise money for the people affected by this disaster,” said Loayza, who added that numerous other local Latin American consulates and organizations already have offered their assistance. “We need to find resources or money as soon as possible and mobilize it to Lima.”
The Mormon Church in Utah has contacted the consulate and will fly an airplane loaded with supplies to the cities affected, he said.
The Longmont-based Asociacion de Peruanos Residentes Norte de Colorado is planning a soccer tournament Sunday to raise funds, said coordinator Gilberto Palomino.
The epicenter of the quake was far enough away from Lima, the nation’s most populated city, but it still rattled buildings and broke windows in the capital.
Palomino, who has children in Lima and still owns a house there, said power was restored to portions of the city Thursday afternoon (Denver time) and that he was finally able to contact a relative.
“I talked to my youngest brother, and he told me all the windows in my house are broken, but that’s not a big deal to me as long as everyone in my family is safe,” Palomino said.
Local college professor Arthur Campa spends up to two months a year in Peru for a research project and lived in the capital city for a couple of years as a boy.
He fears the government there won’t be able to get an accurate count of the dead or provide the kinds of rescue services needed because areas effected are impoverished.
“They don’t have the infrastructure to do much about this,” Campa said. “In some of the smaller villages and towns, there are no communications set up or basic services. In one town, there are four policemen for an area of 12,000 plus.
“We may never accurately know how many people were killed or wounded,” he said.
Most Peruvians affected by the destruction, Loayza said, seem to be those living and working in the agricultural industries, which export goods such as asparagus, citrus products and Pisco, the Peruvian brandy.
“It appears many of the people hurt are poor and need the help,” said Loayza, who moved to Denver last month.
The consul general’s two children are college students in Lima and arrived there the day before the quake.
“They are OK, but the people there were very scared,” Loayza said. “The earthquake lasted nearly two minutes – very frightening. My daughter does not want to go back into the house because she is afraid it will fall down.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-954-1537 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
