UN starts Chile quake aid delivery

The UN said it would begin rushing aid deliveries to Chile today after the government officially asked for help with the weekend’s massive earthquake.

A UN humanitarian spokeswoman said Chile formally made its request today, two days after the 8.8-magnitude quake struck about 200 miles south of the capital, Santiago, killing over 700 people.

Before the request international aid groups had sent some funds and experts. But their action was limited as Chilean officials were busy assessing the destruction from the earthquake and the needs of up to two million affected people.

Chile’s government identified its emergency needs as temporary bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electric generators, damage assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and dialysis centres, the spokeswoman said.

“We are prepared to provide assistance,” the spokeswoman said. “It could be quite fast, given that our experts are on standby and were alerted in the region.”

UN and Red Cross officials said details of the destruction in Chile remained sketchy, noting that aftershocks were a continued risk and citing a number of “silent areas” with no contact to the outside world.

The international Red Cross said volunteers were providing first aid in areas hardest hit, and that it was appealing for donations within Chile.

It is sending aid experts to help recovery efforts, but stressed that local officials were taking the lead – unlike in Haiti, where the January earthquake destroyed large parts of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and killed over 200,000.

“Haiti was a different case: We had an office there and we had people on the ground. We have no office in Chile,” said a Red Cross spokesman.

“We are organising help for families trying to reconnect. But it’s really preliminary. We need to talk to the Chilean Red Cross and first find out what they need.”

The UN had aid teams on standby on Saturday, hours after the earthquake destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes, and knocked out electricity installations, major bridges, water mains and hospitals. Communications and connections by road were still poor, officials said.

The World Health Organisation said it expected the death toll to rise in the coming days as communications improve. For survivors, it said access to health services will be a major problem and noted that indigenous people living in adobe homes were most at risk from heavily damaged infrastructure.