MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Peru “megathrust” quake toll keeps mounting as rumbling ceases

The death toll rose to 500 on Thursday in the magnitude-8 earthquake that devastated cities of adobe and brick in Peru's southern desert. Public services collapsed, emergency operations are slow in delivering and rescue efforts seem minimal compared to the magnitude of the tragedy.

The final toll is expected to rise as rescue groups clear the debris. Late Thursday the Peruvian Public Works ministry said most routes to the area had been re-opened and the trickle of aid begun arriving. However the telephone system continues non operational and communications are limited and Peruvian authorities admitted they are extremely short of medical supplies. Peruvian press reports that dust-covered dead were pulled out and laid in rows in the streets, or beneath bloodstained sheets at damaged hospitals and morgues. Doctors struggled to help more than 1,500 injured, including hundreds who waited on cots in the open air, fearing more aftershocks would send the structures crashing down. Destruction was centered in Peru's southern desert, at the oasis city of Ica and the nearby port of Pisco, about 200 kilometers southeast of the capital, Lima. The United Nations said the death toll was expected to rise beyond the 450 reported by Peru. "It is quite likely that the numbers will continue to go up since the destruction of the houses in this area is quite total" reported U.N. Assistant Secretary-General Margareta Wahlstrom. Pisco's mayor said at least 200 people were buried in the rubble of a church where they were attending a service. Some 17 others died inside a church in Ica, the Canal N cable news station said. The historic Señor de Luren church was among several heavily damaged in Ica, where at least 57 bodies were taken to the morgue. Services were packed when the quake struck at 6:40 p.m. Wednesday because August 15 is celebrated by Roman Catholics as the day the Virgin Mary rose up to heaven. "The dead are scattered by the dozens on the streets" Pisco Mayor Juan Mendoza told Lima radio station CPN, sobbing. "We don't have light, water or communications. Most houses have fallen. Churches, stores, hotels ? everything is destroyed." The earthquake's magnitude was raised from 7.9 to 8 on Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey. At least 14 aftershocks of magnitude 5 or greater followed. The tremors caused renewed anxiety, though there were no reports of additional damage or injuries. Tremors were felt in the rest of Peru and as far as neighboring Chile and Ecuador, and Venezuela. President Alan Garcia flew by helicopter to Ica, a city of 120,000 where a quarter of the buildings collapsed, and declared a state of emergency. He said flights were reaching Ica to take in aid and fly out the injured. Government doctors called off their national strike for higher pay. "There has been a good international response even without Peru asking for it, and they've been very generous," Garcia said during a stop in Pisco, where so many buildings fell that streets were covered with small mountains of adobe bricks and broken furniture. In Washington, President Bush offered condolences and said the U.S. was studying how best to send help. One American died in the quake, according to the State Department. Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Spain, France have promised help and planes from the Red Cross and other international aid organizations are expected Friday in Peru. In Chincha, a small town near Pisco only 40 kilometers from the quake's epicenter, an AP Television News cameraman counted 30 bodies in a hospital patio. Hundreds of injured lay side-by-side on cots on walkways and in gardens outside hospital buildings, kept outside for fear that aftershocks could topple the cracked walls. "Our services are saturated and half of the hospital has collapsed," Dr. Huber Malma said as he single-handedly attended to dozens of patients. The quake toppled a wall in Chincha's prison, allowing at least 600 prisoners to flee. Only 29 had been recaptured, national prisons official Manuel Aguilar said. In Lima, 95 miles from the epicenter, only one death was recorded. But the furious two minutes of shaking prompted thousands to flee into the streets and sleep in public parks. In the capital's shanty towns news of the damage is still coming in, but there's a feeling that the city where one third of the Peruvian population lives may have narrowly avoided a major disaster. Scientists said the quake was a "megathrust" ? a type of earthquake similar to the catastrophic Indian Ocean temblor in 2004 that generated deadly tsunami waves. "Megathrusts produce the largest earthquakes on the planet," said USGS geophysicist Paul Earle. The temblor occurred in one of the most seismically active regions in the world at the boundary where the Nazca and South American tectonic plates meet. The plates are moving together at a rate of 3 inches a year, Earle said. The last time a quake of magnitude 7.0 or larger struck Peru was in September 2005, when a 7.5-magnitude earthquake rocked the country's northern jungle, killing four people. In 2001, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck near the southern Andean city of Arequipa, killing 71. In 1970 an 8 magnitude quake left at least 60.000 dead, one of the country's worst tragedies.