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-News from Tue 26 March to 27 March 2002
El Salvador's Quake Victims Continue to Rebuild Greg Flakus San Salvador 26 Mar 2002 22:19 UTC    Listen
to Greg Flakus' report (RealAudio) Flakus
report - Download 535k (RealAudio)
Workers are busy repairing and rebuilding homes on the periphery of the two-block-wide area that was swept away by the landslide, but most of the area remains a wasteland. Here and there, there are patches of white lime thrown on the ground to reduce the possibility of disease and to suppress the foul smell from decomposing bodies and body parts still trapped underneath the earth.
Up the street,
community leader David Valera Chavez works in the modest home he recently
rebuilt. He lost his wife and a daughter in the disaster, but chose to remain
here because it is his home. He says he used up all the savings he had put away
for retirement to rebuild. He says the government has a responsibility to help
people here.
To make matters worse, he says he and other residents are still making mortgage payments to a government program that lent them money to buy their houses. In some cases, he says, people whose houses were completely destroyed are still obligated to pay. A recent ruling by El Salvador's Supreme Court makes it difficult for survivors of the landslide to make claims for assistance. The court ruled that only direct victims could demand compensation, but, as Mr. Valera Chavez notes, the victims are all dead. He says insurance payments have also been of little help since they typically have paid only about 10 percent of the total cost of the house that was destroyed. Looking out his front door, Mr. Varela Chavez surveys the bleak emptiness of the devastated swath of land where the landslide fell. He sees a small bunch of flowers that he put out in remembrance of his lost loved ones. The government of
President Francisco Flores has provided temporary housing and other assistance
to earthquake victims, but officials say the massive destruction overwhelmed
the nation's meager social assistance capabilities.
The Salvadoran government has used nearly $400 million in foreign assistance to repair and restore infrastructure and to provide housing. The government has also put emphasis on repairing schools damaged by the quakes. But because El Salvador is a poor nation with few resources of its own to devote to recovery, the effects of last year's disasters are likely to be felt here for many years to come.
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