Sunday, August 19, 2007

Tragedy in Peru


A terrible tragedy have invaded Peru. A 7,9° earthquake (Richter scale) have occurred damaging the cities of Ica, Chincha, Lima, but specially Pisco. As a result nearly 500 people have dead. Walking through this areas is like to do in a middle of a city devastated for a bombing: hauses nearly destroyed, whole streets to be true, light-posts and cables swaying, arms, legs between the rubbish, corpses who are rigid because of the time, here and there, people walking by all sides trying to get some water or food; there are no basic services (water, drainage, electricity, telephone nor transportation) the total abandon, sickness and death is the only one thing that you can find in those towns.

The news and specials on TV show us every time reports of the tragedy, horrible and crude stories inside the big one that Peruvians wont forget: images of houses that fell down like paper-castles because they were built with a material poor in resistance (adobe) or because they did it negligently without observ the seismic impact... images about a mother who believes that her daughter and mother-in-law are alive below all those tons of stones that is now the cathedral of Pisco... about a father who holds a child who are completely and so rigid, that he doesn’t bend when is holded, seems a dummy with the arms up, in a rictus mortis that lasted several hours... about a neighborg who looks for her neighborgs who were standing in front of her home and now are lost... about a man who cry and claim to God why they are punished so severely... uncles, cousins, brothers, nephews, grandparents, everyone looking for the other one, crying, screaming with howls that mix with the wind… also we can see how some corpses are laying in line in the main square of Pisco, now turned into a improved death –house where their relatives kneeling down and crying endlessly… we are shocked seeing and hearing every time that vortex of horror that we lived also in Lima because here, we felt nearly the same strong shaking.

And maybe, that is the reason for which all population have answered to the help asking of the authorities for clothes, water and all basic material. Time before, when similar tragedies happened in other parts of Peru, people used to act with indifference, because they only read about them in papers, they never felt it as much as nowadays… this time everyone saw how the pictures were shaking in the walls, how the crafts fell down and crashed, how the windows broke and how everything was shaking without control: everyone run desperately to reach the street.

Anyways, it is good that all of us are able to help and learn many lessons, we live in a seismic country and we have to prevent before it will be too late, we have to take into account from the moment we plan to buy or bould a wall, a column, a second floor, a whole house, that we have to be sure that all of them will be made with all security measurements for seism. Also, we have to know how to act before, during and after a earthquake. With this, we can avoid at least in some, tragedies like the one we are living now.

I have posted also, links from the TV report made in the program La Ventana Indiscreta about the impact of this earthquake, it contains the most complete information (until now) about the tragedy. But it contains also images very crude THAT CAN AFFECT SOME PEOPLE. So watch out carefully.

PS: I was about to end this report when another earth shaking have occurred again. Experts say that it is normal and will occur in the next weeks. All that we have to do is stay calmed and to be prepared.

Related links:

Eartquake in Perú report of the TV program La Ventana Indiscreta

Warning: because of their crudity some images CAN HART YOUR SUSCEPTIBILITY

Pisco 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72EX-idEaQk

Pisco 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx0afFmWdpM

Chincha 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC0On0H-ydg

Chincha 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSEsNdIt_7g

Ica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIu3bx0vn1Q