Earthquake in Peru: A Terrible Situation
The Earthquake in Peru has devastated much of the area where it hit and brought immense suffering to its people. There are 85,000 victims--many of whom are injured-- and 17,000 buildings destroyed. Aid is rushing in, but there is a genuine problem in distribution. The Pan American Highway has suffered extreme destruction, and what remains is congested as people attempt to flee the affected area. There are reports that a prison was partially destroyed, and some of the escapees are menacing people on the Pan American Highway. A series of strong aftershocks has rattled the population further. The earthquake was upgraded to 8.0 on the Richter Scale yesterday.
Excellent coverageof the Peru Earthquake and its aftermath is available at Peru's El Comercio online edition, which remains a bright spot in a scene of chaos. One of the worst effects following natural disaster is the breakdown in communications, and El Comercio is doing an excellent job of providing updated information to the country and the world. They have a pretty interesting website which combines aspects of Internet, radio, newspaper, and TV news, so you might want to take a look at it. There are a series of four videos featuring Peruvian TV film coverage here; the third and fourth show the extreme destruction that has taken place. On both websites, which are longer than most US websites, you will have to scroll down.
Bloggers in Peru are also helping fill the information gap with posts such as this one, automatically translated. In addition, Charity Navigator has put up a webpage with further information about making a contribution. Catholic charity, Caritas, is also arranging for contributions which will go directly through church channels.
Excellent coverageof the Peru Earthquake and its aftermath is available at Peru's El Comercio online edition, which remains a bright spot in a scene of chaos. One of the worst effects following natural disaster is the breakdown in communications, and El Comercio is doing an excellent job of providing updated information to the country and the world. They have a pretty interesting website which combines aspects of Internet, radio, newspaper, and TV news, so you might want to take a look at it. There are a series of four videos featuring Peruvian TV film coverage here; the third and fourth show the extreme destruction that has taken place. On both websites, which are longer than most US websites, you will have to scroll down.
Bloggers in Peru are also helping fill the information gap with posts such as this one, automatically translated. In addition, Charity Navigator has put up a webpage with further information about making a contribution. Catholic charity, Caritas, is also arranging for contributions which will go directly through church channels.
posted by Publia at 1:05 PM
2 Comments:
Thanks for your Peru posts Publia, our local media is not covering this situation in the manner that they should be. Maybe they just haven't fugured out a way to pin it on George Bush, a more likely reason is that they have no resources down there. You are right about the importance of the Pan American Highway, it is sometimes hard to appreciate how small a helicopter's payload is but Katrina demonstrated that fact pretty succinctly.
Thanks, el rider. There sure hasn't been much coverage here, but this is a pretty bad disaster.
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