Aid Reaches Battered Areas, Unevenly

By MATT MOFFETT and ANTHONY ESPOSITO

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Residents run in panic as the rumor of a tsunami spreads in Constitución, Chile, on Wednesday.

DICHATO, Chile—Relief efforts in earthquake-torn Chile on Wednesday began to reach the remote coastal areas hardest hit by Saturday's quake and ensuing tsunami, even as four big aftershocks rattled already nervous residents.

The tremors, measuring between magnitudes 5.9 and 6.3, triggered tsunami-alert sirens that sent residents scurrying for higher ground in at least three coastal towns, according to eyewitnesses and local radio.

The fresh jolts only added to the misery in coastal towns like this one of 4,000 residents, where anger at the government is greatest for playing down the tsunami risk immediately after Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake, and for doing little to aid survivors in the days since.

Diego Robles was camped out Wednesday in a makeshift tent city outside this wrecked town, under a hand-lettered cardboard sign reading "We Need Help."

While Mr. Robles waited for aid, he recounted how he and other Dichato residents had fled to higher ground after Saturday's quake, fearing a tsunami. But after about 90 minutes, when the government hadn't issued clear warnings on the risk of tsunami, Mr. Robles and many others came down from the hills to survey the damage.

The houses, he said, had withstood the tremor in surprisingly good shape, but soon great waves began rolling into town. Mr. Robles and others turned around in a hurry. "Have you ever tried to outrun the sea?" he asked.

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Residents in the coastal town of Iloca, motioning to a military helicopter, hold a sign, 'We need help. There are children. Please.' Chile has sent troops to contain looting and distribute aid.

He made it back to the safety of the hill, but an older man behind him didn't and was sucked into the water. Local officials say 30 are dead and 22 are missing, and about 80% of the buildings in this fishing and tourist village are destroyed.

Dichato resident Macarena Vergara said she was on a hill with a police officer Saturday when he was informed by radio that there was no tsunami risk. That's when many residents made a fateful decision to go back to town. "You really wonder about Chile supposedly being an advanced and prosperous country," says Rosa Melgalejo, who has taken refuge in a hut with a tree-branch frame and a roof made of garbage bags.

On Chilean television late Tuesday, Navy Adm. Edmundo González acknowledged that "we were not very clear" when President Michelle Bachelet consulted them on the possibility of a tsunami. "We share that responsibility," Adm. Gonzalez said.

Ms. Melgalejo is one of hundreds Dichato residents now living in precarious huts where they depend upon their own solidarity and resourcefulness, with so far minimal assistance from federal officials. She remembers that after an earthquake in 1960, the government had abundant emergency rations the next day. "It seems Chile has gone backwards," she said.

Jennifer Torro, a 13-year-old shantytown resident, had rescued her pet rabbit, Pepa, from the wreckage and was clinging to it. "People here are hungry," she said.

Aid was arriving unevenly in other areas as well, raising worries of disease and lack of clean drinking water. In the industrial hub of Concepción, Chile's second-largest city, some residents have resorted to drinking water out of backyard pools. In recent days, crowds of people have gathered at a small lake outside the city of one million, bathing in the blackened water and using it to wash dishes and flush toilets. "If we have to, we'll boil the water to drink it," one man said.

Health workers said the situation could turn dire in coming days. "We could start to see some intestinal and stomach viruses tomorrow or the day after because of the water we've been drinking," said Marta Aguilera, a paramedic who lives in Lota and works at a nearby hospital in Coronel.

But in several towns south of Concepción, government trucks began turning up with food, water and medicine.

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In Lota—a former mining town in one of the poorest areas in Chile—a long line formed at a fire truck that was distributing water, as an armed soldier watched over the crowd. "When we're distributing water, these guys help out a lot," said a firefighter as he nodded toward the dour-looking soldier.

Heavy machinery was starting to remove debris from a bridge that had partially collapsed outside Concepción, while utility workers in Lota mounted poles to reconnect wires. There were pockets of electricity. Stop lights that had been dark since Saturday had started to work.

In Dichato on Wednesday, nurse Cinthya Munoz, outfitted with a surgical mask, was walking through the wreckage of downtown updating her count of dead and missing. In one lot, full of splintered wood and brick rubble, a red pickup truck sat flipped over on its cab. Nearby was beat up fishing boat named Estoy Contigo—"I'm with You."

Ms. Munoz says she won´t be surprised if more casualties come to light. "Lots of things went wrong, but you can sumarize it by saying we weren't nearly as well prepared as we thought we were," she said.

—Sergio Abarca and Jeff Fick contributed to this article.

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