SANTIAGO, Chile — After experiencing one of the most powerful earthquakes to strike the planet in the past century, Chileans accelerated their rescue, aid and security efforts in damaged regions Sunday but also took pride in the comparatively low death toll, a result widely attributed to the country’s meticulous planning and preparation.
President Michelle Bachelet opened the door to international aid a day after saying that “we generally do not ask for help.”
Her remarks came after a lengthy meeting with advisers convinced her, she said, that the country faces “a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort to recover.”
Bachelet also announced she was sending 10,000 army troops into the Concepcion area and elsewhere to restore order and assist in recovering bodies and searching for survivors. Using the armed forces is always a sensitive topic in a country that lived under nearly two decades of military dictatorship. Bachelet’s term in office ends March 11, when President-elect Sebastian Piñera takes charge.
Experts said earthquake repairs will take years and will probably cost tens of billions of dollars.
While the death toll rose steadily to more than 700, according to a midday estimate, it remained a small fraction of the tally from a far less powerful earthquake in January in Haiti that claimed at least 220,000 lives. That temblor was more shallow and much closer to a large population center. But the deaths there were mostly because of widespread building collapses.
Earthquake scientists, building engineers and political scientists agreed that even though half a million homes were heavily damaged during more than two minutes of shaking, the fact that so many Chileans survived was a testament to the nation’s enactment and enforcement of stringent building codes.
“We would have expected that an 8.8 earthquake would have done a lot more damage,” said Paul Caruso, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden. “The people in Chile have experience with earthquakes that saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives.”
Still, in one coastal community, Constitucion, as many as 350 people may have been killed by the quake and a tsunami wave that hit about half an hour later, covering shattered homes with thick mud, state television reported. Boats were tossed from the sea onto the roofs of houses.
Police said more than 100 people died in Concepcion, one of the country’s largest cities, about 70 miles from the quake’s epicenter. Dozens of people were trapped inside a 14-story building that toppled, and at least 20 bodies were removed as teams of firefighters crawled through the wreckage, searching for signs of life. The city’s university caught fire as gas and power lines snapped.
As food, water and gasoline became scarce in Concepcion, looting erupted. Police using tear gas initially attempted to stop the looters. A pitched battle developed inside a supermarket and ended only when police allowed local residents to form long lines and remove essential items for free.
The Chilean air force sent a 747 filled with police officers to the region in an attempt to regain control.
At sunrise Sunday, those who attempted to re-enter their damaged homes to retrieve goods and food were forced to evacuate again when a powerful 6.3-magnitude aftershock hit, further complicating rescue efforts. But by midday, emergency workers from the capital had fanned out to a 375-mile stretch of coastline where the majority of the residents have no access to food, water or electricity. Communications with even larger cities was sporadic, while many minor outlying villages and smaller cities had not been reached by day’s end.
For all the destruction, Chileans were also picking themselves up and moving on. Commercial flights began to land sporadically at the main international airport, its two terminals punched and cracked but its runways in good shape.
In Santiago, sleek modern skyscrapers appeared unscathed. But older historic buildings of adobe or brick suffered. The facade crumbled on the elegant 100-year-old Bellas Artes (Fine Arts) Museum. Chile’s main seaport, oil refineries and the state- run Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, all halted operations temporarily. The securities exchange was expected to function normally today.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
