A rescue worker walks among the rubble of the church of San Clemente in Pisco. More than 150 people attending a funeral service died when the church collapsed during the earthquake.

Security police watch over a corpse in Pisco town square.

Pisco, Peru - First came the sound of thunder, then the ground beneath us began to shift. We were lurched from side to side in our chairs, glasses toppled over, the wooden roof groaned and the sky lit up as power lines fused. We jumped up and made for open ground when the shaking finally stopped. Our adrenaline surged but we were expecting this to happen. It had been an aftershock to the massive 8.0 magnitude earthquake that rocked Ica province just two days earlier.

The tremor only lasted a few seconds but was strong and made us nervous about sleeping in our three-story brick hostel. But this had been nothing compared to the quake that left 500 people dead and thousands injured and homeless. For several minutes the Nazca and South American tectonic plates ground together 25 miles below the towns of Pisco, Ica and Chincha and the results have been devastating.

The quake shook with such a force that many of the reinforced concrete buildings in the three towns were reduced to rubble. The majority of local residents live in Adobe style mud brick homes; many of those bricks literally crumbled and turned into dust. The devastation extends for miles beyond the epicenter and many rural towns and villages have been flattened.

With homes destroyed or damaged and with continual aftershocks, thousands of people are living in the streets. In some cases belongings have been salvaged and uncannily set up next to the rubble to resemble the former interior.

"It's just too cold"

It is winter in Peru and the nights are freezing cold. Those sleeping exposed run the risk of illness and Operation Blessing has been providing temporary shelter and blankets to thousands in an effort to keep them warm and out of the emergency clinics. But many have already fallen sick and with hospitals destroyed the clinics are struggling to treat injuries and disease.

In the towns poor hygiene is quickly becoming a fear as toilets and water supplies have been destroyed. We are working with Peru's national civil defense institute (INDECI) to restore sanitation to Pisco by constructing latrines.

Pisco is awash with rescue teams desperately picking through the rubble looking for survivors. On my flight to Lima I sat next to a K9 rescue worker from Spain. He told me they would work for 8 days, typically the maximum amount of time anyone could survive. Now four days since the quake many teams are giving up hope of finding survivors.

"It's just too cold," said one rescue worker from England.

Some city blocks in Pisco are impenetrable mounds of debris. In many spots the scent dogs and workers can only wait for heavy machinery to reveal the dead.

"They will be picking out bodies for weeks," said one Portuguese rescue worker. Every hour corpses are lined up in the town square where they await identification. Most rescue and aid workers are wearing masks to protect from the dust but also the pungent smell of death that penetrates the air.

The road between Pisco and Chinca is perilous. A damaged bridge means traffic is only able to pass one lane at a time. It takes hours to make the short journey. Packs of youths have been preying on the cues of traffic and we have seen aid trucks looted and windows smashed by the opportunists. Fortunately military presence has been bolstered and today passed incident free.

Aid pouring in

In Chincha aid is beginning to pour in from agencies and other parts of Peru. The town's stadium has turned into a huge aid store full of water, clothes, food – and coffins. But the municipality is struggling to cope with the distribution of the goods. So we are moving in to provide transport and logistics. Today a fleet of Operation Blessing-funded trucks and pickups have begun delivering these supplies to the villages and rural areas surrounding Chincha and will continue to do so for days to come.

Many families are leaving the region to stay with relatives. Hoards of people can be found waiting to board buses, clinging to their most valuable possessions. But this migration is making our job easier. We are finding the thousands of families without the resources to leave are the ones that need assistance the most. Shops are closed or destroyed and food is scarce.

While writing this blog another aftershock struck. I ran down two flights of stairs and into the street to join others searching for safety. The shaking lasted only about 15 seconds but it was enough to shatter everyone's nerves a little more and send a warning to the quake victims of Ica province: it will be a cold night ahead.

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