8.0-magnitude quake strikes Peru, OB medical teams dispatched
POSTED: Aug. 16, 2007
By Staci Dennis
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OBI has conducted multiple medical and disater releif efforts in Peru. Currently, teams are on-scene with medicine and blankets.
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ICA, Peru - With the death toll climbing and thousands still missing after a two-minute long, 8.0-magnitude earthquake hit Peru's coastline, relief and emergency workers are scrambling to reach the buried and wounded.
According to Civil Defense, the death toll has reached 450 and is expected to rise.
With city streets, bridges and electrical lines damaged, providing aid to the stranded and injured is difficult. Some of the more remote towns are completely isolated because all communication has been lost.
"In one town, the entire community is sitting outside, because as the aftershocks hit, pieces of their homes are falling," said Jordan Durso, OBI's regional director for Latin America. "None of the houses have roof tops and the people are literally afraid to go into their homes."
An OBI medical team, accompanied by Peru's Chief Minister of International Relations, Raul Garcia Belaunde, just arrived in Canete with medicine, blankets and IV's to aid survivors.
Initial reports state hundreds of buildings and homes have crumbled, included churches that were filled with people and bodies are lying in the streets. Stranded and displaced people are asking for tents, candles and batteries.
In Ica, where the population tops seven million, a main operating room has collapsed and there is no place to perform surgery on the injured.
The earthquake hit about 90 miles southeast of Lima, at 6:40 Wednesday night local time. The U.S. Geological Survey raised the magnitude to 8.0 Thursday, from 7.9 on the Richter scale reported earlier. More than a dozen aftershocks have followed, some as strong as 6.3 officials reported.
Peru is no stranger to large-scale earthquakes. In 2001, a 7.9 magnitude quake hit killing 71 people. In 1970, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake claimed the lives of more than 47,000 people.
OBI teams will also be conducting relief efforts in the hard-hit areas of Chincha, Ica and Pisco.
AP contributed to this report.
How You Can Help
Be a part of OBI's ongoing disaster relief efforts by making an online donation today. With your support, OBI can continue to bring emergency food, water and medical care to these earthquake victims and more who are caught in the midst of disaster.
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