Chile Quake Toll Doubles to Over 700 Dead

[cali]

CONCEPCION, Chile, Feb. 28, 2010



Chile's president sent the army to help police attack looting on Sunday in the wake of an earthquake that shattered cities and killed at least 708 people.

President Michelle Bachelet announced the sharply higher new death toll after a six-hour meeting with aides and emergency officials struggling to cope with Saturday's magnitude-8.8 quake. They had earlier said about 300 were known dead, with 500,000 homes severely damaged.

"We face a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort" for Chile to recover, Bachelet told a news conference.

She said that a growing number of people were listed as missing and she signed a decree giving the military over security in the province of Concepcion, where looters have pillaged supermarkets, gas stations, pharmacies and banks.

On Sunday afternoon state television was reporting more than 350 deaths in the coastal town of Constitution, some caused by a tsunami that swept the city, according to a Reuters report. It was unclear how this number affected the overall death toll.

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http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/28/world/main6253093.shtml

[Maru Kitteh]

1. I don't care how modern your city is. 8.8 is 8.8

How terrifying, and how horrible.

[aquart]

2. Yes. And the toll will get higher.

But it won't be Haiti proportions. And the infrastucture of the nation is still working. It will be 1,000 instead of 100,000 because they took the danger seriously and did the work. Haiti couldn't afford to.

8.8 I can't even imagine. But Chile has a lot to be thankful for, and a lot to pride itself on.

[MiniMe]

3. Considering it was an 8.8 quake that unleashed a but Tsunami locally,

I think the death toll is amazingly low. It will get higher as time goes on, but all things considered it is low.