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Chile Appeals for Aid, Deploys Troops

02 March 2010 04:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet appealed to the United Nations for aid and dispatched more troops to quell looting in the country’s heavily damaged south, two days after a giant earthquake slammed the South American nation, APA reports quoting â€œThe Wall Street Journalâ€.
The U.N. appeal came amid local criticism that the Bachelet government, which is in its final days in power, initially underdiagnosed the devastation, squandering opportunities to rescue survivors and control looting. At least 723 fatalities have been confirmed, although that number is expected to rise.
Looting raged in the hard-hit southern city of ConcepciÃ³n, Chile’s second-largest, while scores of people remained trapped in a 15-story apartment building that toppled onto its side.
Earthquake experts said the death toll so far appears low considering to the enormous power of the magnitude-8.8 quake, in part because many buildings were engineered to withstand such an event. The northern capital of Santiago was slowly returning to business as usual Monday. Subway lines were running again and many shops and offices were open for business, though residents were rattled by aftershocks and scattered cases of gangs attempting to rob markets that been damaged in the quakelooting by gangs.
The worst devastation may by in Chile’s small coastal towns, which received a double blow from the earthquake and the tsunami waves that followed it.
As many as 1.2 million houses in the country may have been damaged by the quake, according to Alicia Barcena, executive director of the U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The earthquake struck around 3:30 a.m. Saturday. In what officials now say was a mistake, the Chilean navy didn’t issue tsunami warnings that might have helped residents escape ocean surges that ultimately devastated several seaside villages.
"There was a failure of communication that resulted in a delayed diagnosis of the gravity of the situation and a delayed response," said Guillermo Holzmann, a Chilean political scientist.
Mr. Holzmann said that even though Ms. Bachelet visited the affected areas in a helicopter hours after the quake, she didn’t appear to get good information about the devastation, exposing deficiencies in Chile’s civil defense services.
Political opponents joined in the criticism. "As late as Saturday, there were desperate cries from people under the rubble asking for help and we will never know how many people we might have rescued," Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, who is a member of the conservative coalition that opposes Ms. Bachelet’s government, said Sunday afternoon. Ms. Bachelet will hand over power to conservative politician SebastiÃ¡n PiÃ±era on March 11.
Some international aid officials gearing up to respond to Chile’s requests praised government efforts so far and said the two-day delay before Ms. Bachelet’s request for help shouldn’t significantly endanger rescue efforts because Chile’s own search-and-rescue operations have been effective.
"I think the government is actually doing good job of coordinating all the offers of international assistance and mobilizing their resources," said Tracy Reines, who directs international emergency response for the American Red Cross. "I don’t think anyone is underestimating anything."
U.N. aid workers on standby since Saturday were rushing to meet Chile’s request for field hospitals, satellite telephones, generators and field kitchens, said Stephanie Bunker, spokeswoman for the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Chile hasn’t asked for international rescue teams. "[The Chileans] have been handling it up to now and they have been doing their best to find people and pull them out alive, but there may be a need for international search and rescue teams," Ms. Bunker said.
Controlling looting has become a primary concern. On Sunday, Ms. Bachelet deployed 10,000 troops and put two Southern regions under curfew and military command. That wasn’t enough, and some 7,000 additional troops, including armored cars, were dispatched Monday.
Looting continued in ConcepciÃ³n despite an increased troop presence and dozens of arrests. Late Monday, armored cars patrolled the city and a fire burned at the La Polar department store.
Mobs ransacked markets, gas stations and department stores, appearing to overwhelm police, who chased away looters with tear gas from one area only to have an outbreak somewhere else. Packs returned to loot some stores only minutes after police chased them away.
In one scene, a mob surged into a store after an aluminum cover was ripped away from its windows. In another, two young men opened cans of beer after looting a store, saying. "Cheers! Here’s to the earthquake." A police officer walked past two other men carrying cases of stolen goods. He makes eye contact but kept walking.
Local residents, some armed with rifles, others with sticks, donned white arm bands and grouped together to protect their property from looters. At a railroad track a short drive away, a group of 15 young men appeared to be preparing for a rumble, carrying sticks and rocks. It wasn’t clear which side they were on.
So Youn Park, a Korean immigrant who has lived in the city for three decades, stood outside his partially looted furniture store, surprised by the outbreak of violence. "I would have never imagined this could happen," Mr. Park said.
The chaos got in the way of delicate rescue operations. A firefighter being lowered into the toppled 15-story apartment building was forced to halt rescue efforts after tear gas from a battle between police and looters wafted his way.
"Looting and pillaging simply aren’t acceptable," Ms. Bachelet said Monday. She said that such rampant crime was hurting the government’s efforts to bring basic necessities to damaged regions.
Two days after a series of waves washed through the seaside village of Iloca, destroying many of the dwellings, dozens of local residents had retreated to makeshift camps in the hills above town, Chile’s El Mercurio newspaper reported Monday.
Waves were powerful enough to destroy the town’s bus and police stations.
AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe-risk modeling firm, estimated that Chile’s economic losses from the earthquake could pass $15 billion.
Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos said an economic jolt from the earthquake could force the economy, which had been recovering from the global downturn, into an unexpected second dip into recession. Added spending to rebuild could help restore economic growth, he said.