Earthquake in Peru

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
Peru Quake Death Toll Rises to 337; Hundreds Injured (Update2)

By Alex Emery and Camilla Hall
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A family camp in the park after the earthquake

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from Peru's worst earthquake in more than 30 years rose to 337 as rescue workers searched for survivors and medics treated hundreds of injured.

The magnitude-7.9 temblor yesterday also left at least 827 people hurt, Peru's Civil Defense Institute said on its Web site.

A state of emergency was declared and countries such as Mexico and Panama pledged aid. It was the world's most powerful quake since a magnitude-8.1 temblor struck off the Solomon Islands in April, triggering a tsunami that killed 54 people.

The Ica region was hardest hit by the quake, which happened at about 6:41 p.m. local time. All the injured and all except one of the dead came from Ica, where a hospital was destroyed and four were damaged, the agency said. One person died in Lima.

At least 60 people died in the regional capital, also called Ica, 265 kilometers (165 miles) south-southeast of Lima, Mayor Mariano Quispe told the Radioprogramas station.

More than 10 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater hit the area, including a magnitude-6.3 tremor today just after midnight, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

The temblor was the largest earthquake in Peru since 1974, said Dale Grant, a geophysicist at the U.S. National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colorado.

Communications Cut

The Civil Defense Institute said its casualty figures, which were compiled from regional information, were preliminary. Electricity supplies and telephone and Internet connections to the affected areas were cut by the quake, adding to difficulties in determining the scale of the disaster.

``The impact is big because there is so much uncertainty'' over the number of casualties, Susana Arroyo, a spokeswoman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in a telephone interview from Peru.

The IFRC is trying to compile its own casualty toll, to be released later today, she said. The agency is donating $205,000 of emergency aid, the spokeswoman said.

Thousands of people chose to camp out on public squares rather than risk facing the aftershocks inside their homes. Looting was reported in several towns.

Police and state hospitals were placed on emergency status and schools closed today, Peruvian President Alan Garcia said in a broadcast late yesterday on Radioprogramas. Garcia held an emergency session of his Cabinet at the presidential palace late yesterday. Emergency services will review schools, roads and bridges for damage today, he said.

State doctors called off a strike to attend the injured, Health Minister Carlos Vallejos said.

Hospitals Overflowing

Hospitals were overflowing with the injured in the southern towns of Chincha, Canete and Ica, according to state news agency Andina. Ica's 16th century Senor de Luren church, one of the oldest in the Americas, collapsed late yesterday during Mass.

Jorge Chavez international airport in Lima canceled all domestic flights and City Hall closed coastal roads.

The temblor hit about 90 miles south-southeast of Lima, the USGS said. Tens of thousands of people evacuated office buildings in the capital's financial quarter of San Isidro.

Fishermen battled heavy seas to drag their launches onto dry land south of Lima in response to a tsunami alert. The quake set off tsunami signals and advisories for Peru, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras and Hawaii. The alerts were later canceled.

In the Chilean city of Santiago, dozens of passengers were stranded at the airport after Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil's second-largest airline, canceled a flight to Lima because of the quake, Television Nacional reported.

The quake was felt as far north as Colombia's capital, Bogota, and as far south as Coquimbo, Chile, about 2,000 kilometers from Lima. There were no reports of injuries or property damage, the Chilean Interior Ministry's National Emergency Office said on its Web site.

A magnitude-7 earthquake carries roughly as much energy as 199,000 tons of TNT, according to the USGS. That energy is spread out in waves and not in one particular spot.