Many in makeshift shelters in Peru

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8.0-magnitude quake destroyed more than 85% of homes in city

PISCO, Peru

An unforgiving wind lashes Juan Escate as he huddles next to a bonfire with his three children, chilling him as he ponders how to fulfill his wife’s dying plea.

Last week’s magnitude-8.0 earthquake wrecked Escate’s home on the outskirts of Pisco, burying his wife Doris in rubble as she rushed their 16-year-old daughter to safety.

“Promise me you’ll take care of my children,” were his wife’s last words, he says.

The earthquake drove Escate and thousands of others in this impoverished port city on Peru’s central coast into crudely constructed shelters. Icy ocean winds carry sand from the beaches and people keep watch all night against thieves.

Adults say they are given a handful of rice with some potatoes at midday. Children are given hot oatmeal for breakfast. Civil Defense has distributed tents to some survivors, but most are still in makeshift shelters near their homes.

Escate’s eyes are fixed on a giant pot of steaming rice and potatoes. The food is not for him and his hungry neighbors but for the soldiers protecting the homeless families from robbers — aid is more valuable now than personal belongings.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do. My children were left without a mother, and I have to take care of them alone,” said Escate, his hands callused from years as a garbage collector. The 16-year-old daughter survived but suffered a fractured hip and is in a Lima hospital.

“She doesn’t know her mother has left us,” he said.

More than 85 percent of the homes here were destroyed and at least 340 people were killed in this city of 90,000, Civil Defense officials said. Overall, the earthquake killed 514 in several cities, the Civil Defense said.

Wrapped in thick, scratchy blankets, survivors listen to the sound of the fire that burns on one of the few street corners in the San Clemente district not blocked by rubble.

Juan Camasca, 37, said that 50 of his neighbors were lucky enough to be given a small piece of chicken after one of the community members slaughtered his animals to feed them.

He said that life is hardest on the outskirts of Pisco, where aid is pouring in and is available in more than 10 points throughout the city, but passing by those just outside.

“The aid came for three days after the earthquake,” Camasca said. “They gave us water, hot water even, but they stopped coming.” He said he watched his friends unsuccessfully try to flag down trucks full of food.

Last week, a 6-week-old infant died of pneumonia after sleeping with her family outside their home in Canete. Family members were worried that the house would topple over from one of the strong aftershocks, which continued for days. They said that humanitarian aid did not reach them.

President Alan Garcia said last week that electricity had been restored in much of the devastated region. But large areas of Pisco remain without lights. Bonfires illuminate the shadows in the tent cities on its outskirts. The government has said that rebuilding coastal towns will cost about $220 million.