08-16-2007, 08:22 AM
'The Sky Fell On Our Heads,' Quake Survivor Says - Feature
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/94260.html
Rio de Janeiro/Lima - Sandro, a tourist, was still showing the strain hours after the earthquake in Peru which by latest counts killed over 300 people. "The sky fell down on our heads and it was suddenly raining blocks of concrete and shards of glass," said the 25-year-old Brazilian who already after his first day of holiday in Peru can't wait to get back to his office in Rio de Janeiro.
Sandro and his four travel companions were forced to trade their comfortable beds in a four-star hotel in Lima for the naked street pavement after the powerful quake which struck Peru on Wednesday. Like tens of thousands of others throughout Peru, he spent the night in the open air for fear of new tremors.
In Lima, where residents described the two minutes of tremors as an "endless torture," a fire broke out in a shopping centre. People raced out of their shops, apartments and office buildings into the rush-hour streets, crying and screaming in terror.
A football match in the Municipal Stadium had to be called off amid panic on the half-filled terraces, while the international airport was shut down.
But the main catastrophe was reserved for the residents of the Ica region of central Peru. Official accounts said the worst-hit were the cities of Ica and Pisco, some 250 to 300 kilometres south of Lima, and above all known for their paradise-like beaches.
Media reports described a "dramatic situation" there as people, with the help of volunteers, frantically spent the night searching through the rubble for survivors. Electricity supplies were completely cut off in both cities.
The Health Ministry immediately despatched a convoy with doctors and nurses to the stricken region, as the inftrastructure of both cities was destroyed.
Ica, a provincial capital of around 170,000 people and home to a well-known museum containing pre-Columbian mummies and art, also saw its famous church, Del Senor de Luren, badly damaged. At Easter and on the third weekend of October each year, this church is the destination of thousands of pilgrims hoping for a miracle.
In order to provide a haven for the hundreds of people who were rendered homeless by the quake, the mayor of Ica opened the gates of the city's football stadium.
In Pisco, which gave its name to the world-famous Peruvian national beverage, most of the city's 50,000 people spent the night in parks.
For older people, the events triggered memories of the disaster of May 31, 1970. That earthquake had roughly the same strength of the one on Wednesday, but it killed almost 70,000 people, becoming the most serious earthquake calamity in the Americas in the period since World War Two.
"We are praying that this will not worse," an older woman told a radio reporter as she prepared to spend the night in the open air.
Peruvians are used to tremors. Some regions of the South American continent are strongly endangered due to their geophysical structures.
This is particularly true of Peru, where Nazca tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean is pushing into the plate beneath the South American continent, creating tensions which inevitably unleash tremors and quakes.
Warm Christian Love
Bangalore
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/94260.html
Rio de Janeiro/Lima - Sandro, a tourist, was still showing the strain hours after the earthquake in Peru which by latest counts killed over 300 people. "The sky fell down on our heads and it was suddenly raining blocks of concrete and shards of glass," said the 25-year-old Brazilian who already after his first day of holiday in Peru can't wait to get back to his office in Rio de Janeiro.
Sandro and his four travel companions were forced to trade their comfortable beds in a four-star hotel in Lima for the naked street pavement after the powerful quake which struck Peru on Wednesday. Like tens of thousands of others throughout Peru, he spent the night in the open air for fear of new tremors.
In Lima, where residents described the two minutes of tremors as an "endless torture," a fire broke out in a shopping centre. People raced out of their shops, apartments and office buildings into the rush-hour streets, crying and screaming in terror.
A football match in the Municipal Stadium had to be called off amid panic on the half-filled terraces, while the international airport was shut down.
But the main catastrophe was reserved for the residents of the Ica region of central Peru. Official accounts said the worst-hit were the cities of Ica and Pisco, some 250 to 300 kilometres south of Lima, and above all known for their paradise-like beaches.
Media reports described a "dramatic situation" there as people, with the help of volunteers, frantically spent the night searching through the rubble for survivors. Electricity supplies were completely cut off in both cities.
The Health Ministry immediately despatched a convoy with doctors and nurses to the stricken region, as the inftrastructure of both cities was destroyed.
Ica, a provincial capital of around 170,000 people and home to a well-known museum containing pre-Columbian mummies and art, also saw its famous church, Del Senor de Luren, badly damaged. At Easter and on the third weekend of October each year, this church is the destination of thousands of pilgrims hoping for a miracle.
In order to provide a haven for the hundreds of people who were rendered homeless by the quake, the mayor of Ica opened the gates of the city's football stadium.
In Pisco, which gave its name to the world-famous Peruvian national beverage, most of the city's 50,000 people spent the night in parks.
For older people, the events triggered memories of the disaster of May 31, 1970. That earthquake had roughly the same strength of the one on Wednesday, but it killed almost 70,000 people, becoming the most serious earthquake calamity in the Americas in the period since World War Two.
"We are praying that this will not worse," an older woman told a radio reporter as she prepared to spend the night in the open air.
Peruvians are used to tremors. Some regions of the South American continent are strongly endangered due to their geophysical structures.
This is particularly true of Peru, where Nazca tectonic plate beneath the Pacific Ocean is pushing into the plate beneath the South American continent, creating tensions which inevitably unleash tremors and quakes.
Warm Christian Love
Bangalore