Giant waves brought death, misery to coast

DICHATO, Chile - The sun had barely risen over the Chilean fishing town of Dichato on Saturday morning when the three giant waves roared in from the Pacific.

The first two surges startled the town's 7,000 residents, who had already been violently awakened by the earthquake that wrought destruction across a swathe of central Chile.

But it was the third surge, a huge wall of water, that tore up and smashed houses, swept cars out to sea, and sucked people's possessions into the sea, destroying more than three-quarters of the town's buildings.

"The last one almost wiped the village off the map," said David Merino, surrounded by a scene of water logged destruction in the village, which was among the closest settlements to the 8.8-magnitude quake.

It was still unclear how many people died in Dichato, where distraught residents wandered the picturesque tourist town trying to salvage possessions and gazing at their ruined homes in scenes reminiscent of the Asian tsunami in 2004 that smashed into coastlines from Thailand to India.

"We don't have anything. We lived by fishing, and we lost everything. How are we going to live?" said 50-year-old fisherman Jose Castillo, holding his fishing knife and a bag as he scoured the ruins of the town for food and water.

"I had a side business renting chairs and kept the money in a box but the sea took everything away."

Other small towns along Chile's central Pacific coast had similar stories of devastation wrought by three waves triggered by the quake. About 350 people were killed by the quake and tsunamis in the town of Constitucion alone, and the overall quake death toll of 711 was expected to rise.

"All I have left is what I am wearing - my coat is all that's left of my uniform," said one policeman in Dichato as he surveyed the wreckage of his home.

In the town of Pichilemu further north, a tractor towed boats along mud-covered streets after they were picked up and washed inland by the waves. Residents huddled around fires made from the wooden debris of destroyed homes to stay warm.

"There are entire fishing villages wiped out along the coast," said Jose Gonzalez Catalan, who ran up the nearest hill with his family and watched the waves lit by bright moonlight come in just after the quake.

"Each wave was about 3 meters high and spaced about 2 or 3 minutes part," he said.

Fishermen in Dichato desperately searched for their boats in the hope of salvaging their livelihoods. Some were washed far inland into cattle pastures.

"We don't have anything - houses, boats, food or clothes, but here we are hoping that they will send help," said fisherman Bernardo Reyes.

"We won't let this beat us though - in five years, the town will be back stronger than before."

(China Daily 03/03/2010 page11)