The Night the Andes Shook

Source: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1653614,00.html?iid=sphere-inline-bottom
Date: Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007.

Vocabulary

1. To sway: to move or swing to and fro, as something fixed at one end or resting on a support.
2. To pop out: to burst open with such a sound, as chestnuts or corn in roasting.
3. To shed: to cast off hair, feathers, skin, or other covering or parts by natural process.
4. To overrun: to run over; overflow.
5. Dire: urgent; desperate.
6. Swelling: to increase in amount, degree, force, etc.
7. Pledge: a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something.
8. Aftershock:
   A quake of lesser magnitude, usually one of a series, following a large earthquake in the same area.
9. Shantytown: a section, as of a city or town, characterized by shanties and crudely built houses.
10. Outskirt: Often, outskirts. the outlying district or region, as of a city, metropolitan area, or the like.
11. Iffy: full of unresolved points or questions.
12. Breadbasket: an agricultural area that provides large amounts of food, esp. grain, to other areas.

Summary

This article is about the terrible earthquake that took place in Peru last Wednesday. 7.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Peru for more than two minutes caused the capital only cosmetic damage and one fatality. But as rescue firemen try to remove the wates of thousands of adove houses the death number starts to grow. Pisco, a city of 116,000 in Ica province, suffered the worst damage and most of the 450 deaths and more than 1,000 injuries that Peru's Civil Defense Institute have so far reported.

In any case, the needs in Peru are dire and immediate. Production Minister Rafael Rey said the most immediate needs are food and water, since Pisco's water system had collapsed. The civil defense institute has begun flying in supplies, including tents for the swelling numbers of homeless. "The President has pledged all the resources required to attend to the needs of the victims and repair damage to infrastructure," Rey said in a telephone interview. Approximately 20% of the city's buildings were damaged. The quake also destroyed some stretches of the Pan-American Highway, which runs along the Pacific coast and is Peru's principal highway — as well as the link between Lima and Ica. Other major roadways, like the Central Highway, which connects the capital to the country's breadbasket in the central highlands, were also damaged.

Personal Reaction

I was shocked when I saw the images on TV about this earthquake. Lima was completely destroyed and rescue workers were trying to find more people among the remains of what once were houses. Peruvian citizens lost everything they had; and more importantly, most of them lost their lives in this fatal aftershock. It will take some time before the city of Lima goes back to its beginning, and much more before the victims recover from this catastrophe. God help them.