HEADLINE:
STORY:
Peruvian families were spending much of yesterday trying to get through to relatives back home, while television stations brought images of devastation from Wednesday's powerful earthquake on the Pacific coast.
"We received the news that my grandpa's house - it's, like, gone," said Paola Garcia, an 18-year-old graduate of Port Chester High School. "All the family from my dad's side, they lost their houses."
Her father's family is from Chincha, a town about 100 miles southeast of the capital city of Lima where hundreds were injured or killed. The country's death toll was in the hundreds last night in the wake of the 8-magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks. Garcia's hometown of Lima withstood strong tremors, but Chincha and areas south were badly hit. Churches and homes turned to rubble, and roads were left impassable.
Somehow, Garcia's grandfather, unable to flee his home, survived the building collapse, she said. A cousin in Chincha e-mailed from his cell phone: "I'm OK, everything is OK, I'll talk to you later."
"It's really hard when you are not able to talk to them," Garcia said.
Telephone and cellular service remained spotty yesterday. At Costamar Express in Port Chester, which has a row of phone booths for long-distance calls, customers tried unsuccessfully to get through to Peru yesterday morning, business owner Fabian Mendez said.
"Many of them were desperate," he said.......
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Source: Journal News
Publication Date: August 17, 2007
Reporter: Leah Rae at lrae@lohud.com or 914-694-3526.
Source URL: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007708170379
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