Chile appealed for international aid

A woman walks by a destroyed road in Santiago, Chile. (Ian Salas/EPA)

Chile officially appealed for international aid today as the country’s President Michelle Bachelet imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in the two provinces closest to the epicentre of Saturday’s earthquake and tsunami and the death toll rose to over 700 people.

The army was sent in overnight to help the overwhelmed police force to deal with looters in Chile’s second city, Concepcion, which was 70km from the epicentre of the quake.

Chilean television has shown images of supermarkets in Concepcion that have been stripped of stock and looters making off with fridges and plasma televisions. Teargas intended to drive looters away has hampered efforts to rescue survivors from the nearby ruins of a toppled tower block.

Guillermo Ramirez, military commander of the central Maule region, sent soldiers with megaphones to warn the 500,000 inhabitants of Concepcion of the 9pm-6am curfew.

“I would advise criminals not to mess with the armed forces. Our response will be severe, but within the context of the law,” he told would-be looters.

As they struggled to keep order, troops fired teargas and water cannons on residents driven to desperation by the lack of water and electricity.

The Mayor Jacqueline van Rysselberghe said: “We need food for the population. We are without supplies, and if we don’t resolve that we are going to have serious security problems during the night,” She warned of grave “social tension” in the area.

British aid workers are due to arrive in the region today, where around 1.5 million Chileans have been affected. The tremors struck at 3.45am on Saturday, causing buildings and roads to collapse and leaving 500,000 homes severely damaged. As powerful aftershocks up to 6.9 in magnitude continue, many thousands of people have spent the last two nights sleeping outside in tents and makeshift shelters, too afraid to return home.

Looting has been reported in the coastal towns which have been hardest hit by the disaster, after the earthquake was followed half an hour later by a 2.6m (8ft 6ins) tidal wave leaving fishing boats stranded in the streets.

Pellehue, a coastal town with 1,000 residents, is partially buried in mud. The rest of it is no longer there, apparently washed away by the ferocious waves.

“The earth started shaking so violently that we couldn’t stand,” said one woman who escaped the devastation. As she fled to higher ground, the air was filled with the noise of homes crushed under waves or being impaled by 20m (65ft) tall trees.

Another survivor has told of the confusion that filled the town as waves and aftershocks struck. Two cars crashed head-on as panicked residents tried to outrun the force of the destruction. “People were going crazy,” the woman said, with tears in her eyes. “It was utter chaos.”

Sebastian Pinera, the President-elect, said that the situation in Concepcion was dangerous. “When we have a catastrophe of this magnitude, when there is no electricity and no water, the population becomes preoccupied and starts losing the sense of public order,” he said.

Ms Bachelet, who is due to hand over power on March 11, said that the air force was to begin flying in food and vital aid to badly hit areas, some of which were largely cut off by the quake.

Residents of the hard-hit town of Talca, 100km inland from the quake epicentre, told The Times that there there was a cacophony of explosions and sirens as the earthquake hit at around 3.45am on Saturday, when plenty of people were still out partying and eating.

“The power station exploded, we saw many fires, car alarms were going off everywhere,” said Tomas Jorquera, 27.

Pablo Avila, 22, who owns an ice-cream store, told how the wall fell in at the Entre Curdas bar where he was drinking. His friend Fernando Chamorro was one of five people who died when interior walls collapsed at the Corta Madero disco.

Sergio Cornejo, 25, a sociology student, ran from the 14th floor apartment where he and six other students were staying as the quake hit, shaking the walls with a monstrous noise.

“I ran back in to find people, but the door had jammed shut and we had to kick it down,” said Mr Cornejo.

He said that his teacher, Raoul Nariteri, was killed when a falling beam hit his head in the Tierra del Fuego restaurant in Talca. His wake was due to be held later today.

The scenes of destruction in the little town intensified in the centre, where in one place an entire row of houses had collapsed. Older houses were worst hit, and a large colonial warehouse was ripped apart, sheets of corrugated iron flapping off its girders.

“We don’t have water or anything. No-one has appeared with help and we need more police to keep order. There are many people here who are robbing,” said Ana, 78.

With mains power completely down there was no electric light anywhere in Talca except at the local Paloma Radio station, which has a generator. Through the night huddles of people congregated outside and queued to speak to volunteers who were taking down the names of earthquake victims and missing persons, and broadcasting them on the radio with appeals for them to contact their families.

Concerns were mounting today for six Britons reported missing after the quake. Two British couples staying at the coastal resort of Pichilemu have yet to contact their families two days after the 8.8 magnitude quake.

Kirsty Duff, from Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, and Dave Sandercock, from Edinburgh, both 25, arrived in the country three weeks ago, according to reports, while Andre Lanyon, from Guernsey, and Laura Hapgood, both 29, went to Pichilemu on Friday.

“We have been very worried. We just keep watching the news and hoping that they are alright,” said Valerie Lanyon, Mr Lanyon’s mother.

Two other Britons — a woman named Natalie Cass, and Tina Cadwallader Lopes, who was in the resort with her Portuguese husband and two children — have also been reported missing. All are named on a website set up by The Surfer’s Cottage, an eco-lodge for surfers in Pichilemu.

A spokesman for Gordon Brown said the British Embassy in Santiago was trying to establish the whereabouts of UK citizens in the country but had so far received no reports of British casualties.

Mr Sandercock’s sister, Ellie, posted messages on social networking site Twitter appealing for help.

“People are posting on Facebook from there, yet no news from my bro Dave Sandercock. Can anyone help?” she wrote.

Ellie Sandercock wrote that her brother and his girlfriend were “keen surfers” and were staying in the Pichilemu region at a local bed and breakfast.

She wrote: “Dave is 5ft 10ins (muscular build) with blonde hair. He may also have a beard. He has a Scottish accent.

“He is travelling with his girlfriend Kirsty Duff. They are probably in Pichilemu, O’Higgins Region. Last contact was Thursday 25 February. They were staying at a local B&B/pension (name unknown). They are keen surfers.”

Details of Mr Sandercock and Miss Duff were also posted on the missing person website Google Person Finder, set up for families to post details of people missing since the quake.

The Foreign Office has so far made contact with around 100 Britons in the stricken country but said no UK casualties were reported at present.

About 65,000 British tourists visit Chile each year, according to the country’s tourist authority.

Meanwhile, remarkable tales of survival began to emerge as rescue workers dragged survivors from the rubble. Alberto Rozas and his seven-year-old daughter Fernanda escaped with nothing more than a few cuts, scrapes and bruises after surviving a fall from their 13th floor apartment when their building collapsed in the quake.

The pair were sheltering in the bathroom doorway when their 15 storey apartment building crumpled, sending them tumbling through the falling rubble, hugging each other all the way down.

Mr Rozas said he had no idea which way was up until he looked through his apartment’s shattered window and spotted “the light of the full moon.”

“The earthquake and the fall were one single, horrible thing,” Mr Rozas told the Associated Press. “I held onto her and she never let me go.”

Hundreds of people remain camped out in parks in the centre of Santiago, the Chilean capital, and others were ready to escape their homes at a moment’s notice, according to Brian Murphy, a Briton who lives there.

“When I went back into my apartment yesterday morning a lot of people had their doors wide open and had suitcases sitting there with their things packed up to leave,” he wrote, in e-mails to relatives in Britain.

Damage was greatest in poorer and middle class areas of the city, added Mr Murphy, where many older buildings have collapsed and there is no electricity or gas, and only intermittent water. Strict building regulations have ensured that newer properties withstood the quake.

Most supermarkets remain shut, and a number of roads and bridges have collapsed, leaving many people stranded away from home, said Mr Murphy.

Many countries have offered aid, and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, is expected to visit Chile tomorrow as part of a scheduled tour of South America.

Staff from the British aid agency Oxfam are due to reach Chile later today as the aid effort starts to gather pace.

Jeremy Loveless, Oxfam’s deputy humanitarian director, said: “It is deeply frustrating that it can take some time to get our staff to where they need to be. Our team has to drive over the top of the Andes on badly damaged roads to get to Concepcion because the Santiago airport is still closed.

“Until our team has been able to reach the affected area and complete an early assessment, we are unclear how we will best be able to assist the thousands of people affected by the quake. We are not asking for donations at this stage.”

Author: Paola