SANTIAGO — World governments made immediate pledges of aid after Chile said it needed help to handle the fallout from the earthquake which killed more than 720 people.
Communication equipment and other aid was to arrive Tuesday after President Michelle Bachelet requested mobile bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electrical generators, disaster assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and restaurants, UN officials said.
Some two million Chileans, one eighth of the entire population, are estimated to have been affected by Saturday’s massive magnitude 8.8 tremor, one of the most powerful on record.
Chilean Foreign Minister Mariano Fernandez said that dozens of satellite phones for quake-hit areas were already on their way. He told a press conference that foreign nations were also sending mobile bridges and field hospitals.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who flies into the Chilean capital Tuesday, said she would bring along 20 satellite telephones and a technician.
Clinton, who was in Montevideo for Monday’s inauguration of Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, said US search and rescue teams were also on standby, but Washington was ramping up its initial assistance.
"Chile has requested our help in terms of providing a field hospital, communications support, and water purification systems. And so we are mobilizing those capabilities as we speak and will be moving those down to Chile as quickly as possible," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said in Washington.
Russia will send two planeloads of humanitarian aid to Chile at the order of President Dmitry Medvedev, a Kremlin spokesman said.
The Emergency Situations Ministry will "send two planes with tents, warm clothing, electrical generators and essential supplies," the spokesman told Itar-Tass news agency, without stating when the aid will be sent.
Australia, which along with most of the Pacific was placed on tsunami alert after the quake, pledged 4.5 million US dollars in emergency and reconstruction aid.
The European Union said it was ready to deploy "an assessing mission" to look at damage to hospitals, schools and other facilities, its foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.
The European Commission has already approved three million euros (four million dollars) in emergency aid for Chile, while Japan pledged three million and China one million.
Chile’s neighbors also responded.
President Alan Garcia of Peru was to fly to Santiago on Tuesday to express solidarity with Chileans and supervise the delivery of 30 tonnes of humanitarian aid.
Argentina said it would dispatch 54 health personnel and a field hospital, four water treatment systems and electrical systems.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was the first foreign leader to visit quake-hit Chile on Monday.
Bolivia announced it was sending 60 tonnes of humanitarian aid and an unspecified amount of drinking water.
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