Peru's president vowed yesterday to rebuild quake-shattered Pisco as desperate families huddled in makeshift shelters but a beefed-up military presence appeared to put a stop to looting.
Hope diminished for rescuers searching mountains of rubble with sound detectors and infrared cameras.
President Alan Garcia told a news conference in Pisco that the government was preparing plans to rebuild the port city, which lost 85 percent of its houses to Wednesday's magnitude-8 quake. Officials say the quake killed at least 540 people in towns along Peru's southern coast .
"We have many homes, fishermen's wharfs to rebuild," said Garcia, wearing a leather windbreaker.
He said the government would provide basic homes of two bedrooms that families could expand.
Garcia has been operating from the disaster area since Thursday, taking direct control of aid operations.
A public opinion survey released by pollster Apoyo yesterday showed that 76 percent of Lima's residents, at least, approved Garcia's management of the disaster. It had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points
Long lines emerged spontaneously in the rubble-strewn streets of Pisco yesterday as official and non-official aid groups parked trucks and distributed water, food, clothing and other supplies.
Most appeared orderly, though on Saturday, some people who had lined up 500-deep screamed they had not eaten and rushed an Army truck when it ran out of the crackers, candy and toilet paper it was distributing at a soccer stadium.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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