President Pledges to Rebuild Peruvian Port City

Garcia says reports of looting exaggerated

Aug 20, 2007 – Peru's president vowed yesterday to rebuild quake-shattered Pisco as desperate families huddled in makeshift shelters and a beefed-up military presence appeared to put a stop to looting. Rescuers searched rubble with sound detectors and infrared cameras, but hopes of finding more survivors are dwindling, officials said. President Alan Garcia told a news conference in Pisco the government was planning to rebuild the port city, which lost 85 per cent of its houses to Wednesday's 8.0-magnitude quake. Officials say the quake killed at least 540 people. "We have many homes, fishermen's wharfs to rebuild," said Garcia, adding the government would provide basic homes of two bedrooms that families could expand. Garcia accused the media of exaggerating reports of looting, "which in very few cases actually occurred," he said. "But you could say that despite a few small incidents, order has been re-established."

Some 280 flights had arrived with more than 540 tonnes of food and other supplies, and navy ships had brought potable water, Garcia said. "No one is going to die of thirst or hunger in these cities," he said. Long lines emerged in the rubble-strewn streets of Pisco as aid groups parked trucks and distributed water, food, clothing and other supplies. Most appeared orderly, though the day before some people who had lined up 500-deep rushed an army truck when it ran out of the food and supplies it was giving out. Garcia, who vowed to re-establish order "regardless of what it costs," said yesterday troops in Pisco had increased from 400 to 1,200. Authorities set up food distribution points in Pisco, but the flow of aid still seemed slow for the estimated 80,000 people in the three cities most affected by the quake.

Destruction was centred in Ica and Pisco, about 200 kilometres southeast of the capital, Lima. A third city, Chincha, was also hit hard. Up to 80 per cent of people in quake-hit urban areas may be without clean water and many rural areas still have not been reached to assess damage, said Save the Children aid worker Dominic Nutt. "The situation is probably worse than first imagined," Nutt said. In a soccer stadium, families took refuge in a half-dozen makeshift shelters made of cardboard and blankets held up by wooden poles. "It is very cold at night and we don't have blankets. We don't have water. The tents have not arrived," said Maria Tataja, 38, who was sharing shelter with nine others. Miguel Soto, a police officer, said many food trucks were not getting through.
By Frank Baja, Associated Press
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