“The entire coast was hard hit, but this is an area where the poorest rural residents live,” Alfaro said. “Aid is not reaching them because these are very small villages.”

The death toll was nearly 800 on Mar. 3, with 542 of the confirmed deaths in the Maule region, but many people were still missing and some bodies were unidentified.  

Three trucks left Linares early March 2 to distribute supplies, especially food and water, to residents of far-flung villages in the farming region.

The greatest need is for milk, water, food, fuel and cots for victims, as well as assistance in rebuilding houses that collapsed in the quake, Alfaro said.

The Linares office of Caritas, the church’s social assistance agency, is compiling an inventory of damaged and destroyed homes.

After praying the Angelus Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI said, “I am praying for the victims and am spiritually close to those affected by this serious catastrophe. For them, I ask God to grant relief of suffering and courage in this adversity.”

This earthquake was the largest in Chile in 25 years and was powerful enough to affect the Earth’s rotation by about one-millionth of a second.

Canada is sending up to $2 million in immediate humanitarian assistance and may send more aid if it is  needed, Minister of International Co-operation Bev Oda said in a statement. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared the southern regions of Maule and Bio-Bio a disaster area, ordered the army to reinforce the police and imposed a night-time curfew on the region.

The national government is sending aid to the region by ship to bypass the buckled roads, damaged bridges and crowds of people who swarm vehicles arriving in urban areas, Alfaro said.

Between 30 and 40 churches and chapels in the Linares Diocese were badly damaged or destroyed, along with two orphanages. In coastal villages, churches have been turned into makeshift morgues.

The earthquake, which struck at 3:34 a.m., triggered a tidal wave more than 30 feet high in places that swept more than a mile inland. Some people were washed away. Cars were left piled on top of houses, Alfaro said.

While church leaders mourned the deaths, they also called for solidarity and condemned looting.

Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello of Concepcion called the pillaging a “second earthquake.” Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of nearby Rancagua, president of the Chilean bishops’ conference, said it “strikes our conscience” and “raises questions for us about deeply held values.”

President-elect Sebastian Pinera, who was to take office March 11, faces the task of reconstruction, which he estimated could cost between $15 billion and $30 billion.

Up to 500,000 houses were badly damaged or destroyed.