Quake, tsunamis kill more than 700 in Chile

CONCEPCION, Chile, (Reuters) – A massive earthquake  and tsunamis killed 350 people in one Chilean coastal town,  pushing the total death toll higher yesterday as the government  tried to get aid to hungry survivors and halt looting.
President Michelle Bachelet said at least 708 people had  been killed and called for calm as people desperate for food  and water looted stores in some areas worst hit by Saturday’s  8.8-magnitude quake, one of the world’s biggest in a century.
Television images showed cars tossed on top of shattered  houses and boats lifted far from the waterfront in the coastal  towns of Pelluhue and in Constitucion, where 350 deaths alone  were reported.
“It’s an enormous catastrophe … there’s a growing number  of missing people,” Bachelet said, adding that food and medical  aid was being sent to help the roughly 2 million people  affected by the quake.
The quake wrecked hundreds of thousands of homes, mangled  highways and bridges and dealt a heavy blow to infrastructure  in the world’s No. 1 copper producer and one of Latin America’s  most stable economies.
A lack of water, food and fuel sharpened the hardship for  the hundreds of thousands of people left homeless, and  widespread disruption to the power supply threatened to hamper  Chilean industry’s recovery.
In the hard-hit city of Concepcion, about 500 km (310  miles) south of Santiago, about 60 people were feared to have  been crushed to death in a collapsed apartment block where  rescuers worked through the night to find survivors.
The government imposed a curfew in Concepcion and the Maule  region yesterday in a bid to stop looting.
Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a crowd  of looters carrying off food and electrical appliances from one  supermarket in Concepcion. Television images showed people  stuffing groceries and other goods into shopping trolleys.
“People have gone days without eating,” said Orlando  Salazar, one of the looters at the supermarket. “The only  option is to come here and get stuff for ourselves.”
Concepcion’s mayor, Jacqueline van Rysselberghe, said the  situation was getting “out of control” due to shortages of  basic supplies and called for troops to be sent to the city.
The quake poses a daunting reconstruction challenge for  President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who takes office in two  weeks.
Crushed cars, fallen power lines and rubble from wrecked  buildings littered the streets of Concepcion, which has about  670,000 inhabitants and lies 115 km (70 miles) southwest of the  quake’s epicenter.
A string of strong aftershocks have rocked the country and  thousands of Concepcion residents camped out in tents or  makeshift shelters, fearing fresh tremors could topple weakened  buildings.
Some economists predicted a deep impact on Chile’s economy  after the quake damaged its industrial and agricultural sectors  in the worst-hit regions, possibly putting pressure on its  currency.
The economic damage from the could be up to $30 billion,  equivalent to about 15 percent of gross domestic product, said  Eqecat, a firm that helps insurers model catastrophe risks.
Chile’s fourth-largest copper mine El Teniente, which  accounts for more than 7 percent of national output, and the  nearby Andina mine were due to resume operations today but  analysts feared power outages could still curtail supplies.
There was no information available yesterday on two  Anglo-American mines where power outages have halted  production.
State television said Santiago’s airport had started to  receive international flights for the first time since the  quake struck.
The quake triggered tsunamis as far afield as Japan and  Russia, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or  serious damage.