PERU EARTHQUAKE 2001
"What will happen to us now?", asks a mother of three.
"I returned to save my crops. It doesn't matter that I have to transport water on the backs of my burros, I have to save something. Otherwise my children will go hungry," reports a farmer from Cotahuasi.
LWR staff in Peru have visited several towns damaged by the June 23 earthquake near Arequipa, Peru. LWR is working with local partners to help communities recover. Following are several eyewitness accounts of the damage, as told to Pedro Veliz, LWR's Andean Regional Representative, and Martin Blum, LWR's Andean Regional Office Program Manager.
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Mr. Alberto Huamaní Xesspe, Governor of Caspi Annex in Toro, 36, and Mr. Cesar Alvarez Heredia, 51, President of the Farmers' Community.
"That day all of the town knew that they were going to celebrate the anniversary of the 'Colegio Nacional' [note that in Guatemala a Colegio is a local 'private' secondary school and not a college] that is normally the 30th of May. Due to some families and teachers leaving the town for voting for the 'second Vuelta', they had moved up the date of the celebration to the 23rd.
"The entire town met in the stadium and was enjoying a soccer game of the young school children when suddenly the earth started to move very strongly and in that moment there was panic. But happily we were with there with our local authorities, and the teachers started to calm us down and placed us in groups. We began singing praises to God, all praying and singing and little by little the earth stopped moving. God had wanted us to be together - to not be as if we would be in the farm or in the house. But we knew that some people were in their lands.
"Together with Dr. Atahuallpa, the nurses, the principal and all of the teachers, we rapidly formed a team to search the farms looking for anybody who could be trapped or who needed our help. I (Alberto) was assigned to go to walk on the road to Cupe, and there I met with two teachers who were coming to watch the soccer match. They were frightened, but nothing had happened to them. We encountered Mr. Demetrio on his land, who it seemed had been frightened, ran and had fallen as we could see scratches. We took him to the town center and he was attended to.
"Our preschool building was split and cracked on all sides and is no longer habitable, but the primary and secondary schools are still standing and safe to enter. The Central Post Office is also passable, but our church is destroyed.
"Rescue teams informed us that there were no human casualties, but they observed that 50% of the homes had fallen. On farms they came across burros that had been buried during the course of the earthquake, one of which belonged to Don Cesar. In addition to the fallen houses, there were dead guinea pigs, hens and smashed clay pots all around. Women and children cried when they saw that they were left with nothing and everything was either buried or pulverized and scattered everywhere.
"Another rescue team used loudspeakers to try to encourage people to stay calm, and to file into the stadium. Everyone arrived quickly and spent the night on the ground, exposed to the night air. Nobody was in their own home that night. Earlier on the director had made breakfast and invited everyone to eat, but this was the only meal we had for the entire day. During the night there were more aftershocks waking everyone, and making it impossible to sleep.
"Very early the next day we gathered to form more teams to go out to the country side and view damages to canals, animals, and the roads. Almost all the roads were destroyed and we couldn't get to the town of Vizca or to any of the lower regions. Without animals you can walk, although it's difficult, and if you fall you fall into a ravine and nobody can save you."
"Don Cesar says, 'my house is like an exploded potato stew ready to fall into ruins. It's exactly what they see when they come to investigate the damage. When rescue teams come to our community to see what happened they will see how bad it is.'
"After the inspection we returned and had a gathering with the whole town. We informed them of the assessed damage and asked that nobody leave the town without advising us where they were going. With the town all together and with their leaders we are alert and prepared.
"Now we are no longer sleeping in the same location. Everyone is doing their own thing on their own property hopefully staying out of danger's way. We have not been successful in setting up a community soup kitchen because each family has too many children and we (the authorities) don't have anything to give them. Nobody has a big enough kitchen to provide this service so we have decided that each family would provide for themselves in their own homes, but with great care."
"Yesterday we left the town of Caspi, and with some difficulty arrived in Cotahuasi to inform our community leaders of how grave our situation is. We asked that they help our 120 families, 50% of which do not have homes at all. If the authorities listen to us we will also air our problems about not being able to use our roads and that they are impassable even with pack animals.
"These days we are working to rebuild our community but we still require explosives and tools to remove the large boulders that have fallen on our farms and roads as well as in our canals. Even though we have cleaned up quickly since the earthquake we still can't plant crops. Nobody will have food and we don't wish to live eternally off of food sent by relief organizations. Hopefully we will be able to overcome this situation.
A 35-year-old mother of three from Toro.
"After mid-day (Saturday, June 23rd) all the neighbors had gone to CEI where we were going to celebrate the Day of the Farmer. The city was holding a convocation for the whole town and over a loudspeaker. They were getting ready to read the program. Not only were there events planned for this day, but the following day there was to be a dance contest, and bake sale. Because of the earthquake, none of this was possible.
"...I don't know exactly when the earth began to shake. I couldn't control my fear though and began to scream. A man told me to calm down, that it was going to pass. He was worried because my three children started to get scared and began to cry.
"Later, the tremors calmed down and everyone ran to their homes. I live next to the school and the majority of houses on this side had fallen. (I lived in the town of Toro). All that was left were the tin roofs on top of the rubble. The damage was so great that there was nothing left to see, but afterwards I saw the rocks fall from the hills. The screams were incredible. Children and men were screaming and crying at the sight of their houses being smashed by large boulders. Chickens and rabbits ran and hid in the debri, dogs howled. It was really sad to see everything destroyed in minutes. What will happen to us now? God please help and protect us. We have to go on for the sake of our children."
A resident of the city of Cotahuasi.
"The roads to my land are dangerous (Quechualla). The town is located in a ravine surrounded by hills and has a temperate climate. We produce grapes and all kinds of fruit from which we make our living.
"I am going to tell you what happened that day with the death of Senora J. She had left Llallihua early with her husband and two other people. She was riding a burro that was also carrying supplies. They were rounding a dangerous curve.
"Walking up a hill, they felt the earth shake. Stones and earth began to fall and the burro that Sra. J. was riding dumped her on the ground leaving her to be buried up to her waist. Her companions tried to free her, but she insisted they go after the mule with the supplies. They went after the burro, but it had already disappeared and when they returned to Sra. J. she was completely buried and dead. They were able to pull her from the earth though and carry her body back to town on one of the other burros.
"I met up with the group on the road. It was still very early in the morning and dark. Sra. J.'s husband told me what had happened and asked me to accompany them. I couldn't though because I became worried for my own family in Cotahuasi and took off quickly for my town. My family lived in the house of this family and I knew what a good mother Sra. J. was. She didn't deserve to die in such a way.
"I was in the town of Quechualla after the earthquake. Everything was ruined and the sky was dark because of the dust. This day we had been working in the Quismo canal. Normally we would work until 5pm, but the boss gave us a job in which we finished early and at 1 pm we were all home. If we hadn't left work early this day we would have been buried by the falling earth. The canals suffered the worst damage. Now we neither have water for irrigation nor for drinking. The new government buildings suffered considerable damage and various houses have crumbled, but there were no other human casualties.
"I returned to Quechualla because I had to save my crops. We plant in June and July and then by January we have the harvest. We do this because in the rainy season it is impossible to cultivate crops. It doesn't matter that I have to transport water on the backs of my burros, I have to save something. Otherwise me and my children, will go hungry."
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