Severe Cold Poses Biggest Threat to Children Made Homeless by Earthquake

Extreme winter temperatures are endangering the lives of thousands of children and their families whose homes have been destroyed by the Peru earthquake. Save the Children’s emergency response team is reporting that 80 to 100 percent of housing in the worst-affected areas around Pisco and Chincha Alta has been demolished by the quake. Up to 1 million people live in the area and may have been affected. As temperatures drop to near zero at night, families are struggling to survive with no shelter and few blankets. Thousands are sleeping in the open air, forced to scavenge for firewood in an attempt to keep warm. Lack of food, clean water, and medical supplies is posing a major threat. Four hundred and fifty people are confirmed dead, but Save the Children is concerned numbers will rise steeply in the upcoming days. Severe damage to roads and to landline and mobile networks is still hampering rescue efforts, with little reliable information available from a large part of the affected region as to the extent of the devastation. In addition to having to sleep in the cold, many children have also been separated from their families during the chaos and are extremely vulnerable to abuse due to growing disorder in the city. (Save the Children UK, August 17)