LIMA, Peru (August 20, 2007) - "Ayudanos Por Favor" ("Help us, please"), is written on signs a family holds up along the roadside of the Pan-American highway in Peru. And they’re right. Even with so many emergencies going on in the world today, in the wake of this 8.0-magnitude earthquake, Peruvians do need help.
On Sunday morning at 5, CARE trucks pulled out of the capital city of Lima en route 150 km down the coast with relief supplies to smaller communities around the town of Chincha.
During most of the three-hour drive down this highway bordered by dark-colored sand dunes stretching along the left and the Pacific Ocean glimmering on the right, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The road that quickly filled with overcrowded taxis, dump trucks and commercial vehicles didn’t slow our convoy. Then as we passed a sign reading 8 km to Chincha, everything changed. The destruction presented itself.
| The quake damaged the Pan-American Highway. (2007 Allen Clinton/CARE) | | First, a collapsed restaurant. Then a collapsed home, and more collapsed homes. Traffic soon came to a halt just outside of Chincha as bulldozers finished clearing boulder-sized debris from the slit-open road. One road section had fallen into the valley below.
Standing outside our vehicles waiting for our path to clear, we saw a team of Peruvian Army troops walk by. Security had been a major concern in the immediate 48 hours after the quake as looters ransacked vehicles and families waited anxiously to receive initial distributions. But it appeared to be under control.
Today, CARE is distributing to five communities. Arriving to the first, Tambo de Mora, southwest of Chincha, the extent of the destruction baffled us, the suffering of the poor people inexplicable. CARE’s logistics coordinator Luis Agurto said that 90 percent of the homes here were affected and health posts have collapsed. The place looked like a bomb had been dropped. Homes fell apart like scattered Lego game pieces. Power lines leaned to side. As survivors tried their best to pull their possessions from the remains of their homes, they had nowhere to go but on the street to wait for aid to arrive.
| Grandmother Graciela Martinez describes the destruction of her home. (2007 Allen Clinton/CARE) | | Graciela Martinez, a 69-year-old grandmother with six kids of her own, said she’s still in shock. Raising her arms she described what it was like when the walls of her home – the home she was born in – fell in around her. And she said the quake also destroyed the homes of her children as well. Every morning before the quake hit she would wake up and sweep her kitchen floor. She tried doing the same today. The kitchen floor was all that was in tact of her home.
| Juana Loyola Saravia (left) walks down the street of Tambo de Mora passing by her belongings: "It was horrible. We lost our homes and now live on the street." (2007 Allen Clinton/CARE) | | On this day, CARE response teams delivered supplies of food, water, blankets, and flashlights to families like Graciela’s in the communities of Tambo de Mora, Chincha Baja, Pueblo Nuevo, El Carmen and Cruz Verde. The people we met in each of these communities shared the same story. They need our support not just now but also in helping rebuild their homes, schools, water systems and income generating activities.
The day that ended with an aftershock, shaking glass windows and stopping people in their tracks, just when they had started to move again.
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