EARTHQUAKE IN PERU
Situation Report No. 2—24 June 2001
Report of the Coordination Meeting
On Sunday evening, 24 June, the Disaster Office of Peru´s Ministry of Health organized a coordination meeting with Peruvian professionals responsible for disaster response, personnel from PAHO/WHO and UNICEF, Peru´s specialized Center for Seismic Engineering and Disaster Mitigation (CISMID) and experts in hospital mitigation.
Although it has been difficult to collect information on damages in rural areas of southern Peru because communications are still interrupted, the city of Moquegua appears to have been the most severely affected, with approximately 50% of the buildings seriously damaged. The historic center of the city (home to many centuries-old buildings) was particularly hard hit, and there has been almost total destruction in the poor urban neighborhood of San Francisco. Pipelines for drinking water and solid waste disposal have collapsed and tanker trucks are being used to distribute drinking water. Several areas of the city have no electricity and many people are sleeping in the streets or parks for fear that aftershocks will continue to collapse buildings.
Arequipa and Tacna suffered a lesser degree of damage, and again, primarily to older buildings. Electricity and water services have been restored to almost the entire population of these cities. In the town of Sara Sara in the department of Ayacucho, 250 homes were destroyed.
General Health Situation
A team has been dispatched to Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna to evaluate health sector damages and assess needs. Health teams from the Ministry of Health and the Social Security have been deployed to southern Peru with additional medicines and supplies. The most seriously injured patients in Moquegua have been evacuated by air to Arequipa, where better conditions exist to treat the injured. Some medicines are beginning to run short, particularly those used to treat acute respiratory infections and diarrhea. A team of mental health specialists will soon be deployed to the affected areas.
Damages to Health Facilities
Arequipa: Severe damage to the medical and surgical wings of the Goyeneche Hospital (Ministry of Health). Patients and equipment have been evacuated to other parts of the hospital. The Honorio Delgado Hospital (Ministry of Health) has cracks on the second and third floor walls. The Nacional del Sur Hospital (Social Security) has no elevator service. Floors 2-8 cannot be used.
Tacna: Four floors of the Hipólito Unánue Hospital were evacuated and the auditorium and psychiatric wings have been reconditioned to treat those who were hospitalized.
Moquegua: No serious damage to hospitals has been reported.
It is highly likely that health centers and health posts in outlying areas of the three affected departments in Peru will report further damages. However, no concrete information is presently available.
Near-term Actions
Peru´s Ministry of health will:
- Convene a meeting on Monday, June 25, to prepare a list of needed medicines and supplies.
- Mobilize, with the support of PAHO/WHO, engineers and architects specialized in evaluating damages to health infrastructure and equipment to Arequipa, Tacna and Moquegua.
- Coordinate the urgent dispatch of 20-liter containers (300) to Moquegua and chlorine tablets, with support from UNICEF.
- Strengthen links with Peru’s Civil Defense by placing health personnel in INDECI.
- Designate health professionals to participate in OFDA’s assessment mission (PAHO/WHO will also participate in this mission).
- Set up a health "Situation Room" with the department of Epidemiology and the support of PAHO/WHO.
More information available in Spanish from Peru´s Civil Defense at http://www.oge.sld.pe/defensa/
