Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-12-03
Unofficial Estimates Place
Number of Dead at 230,
With 400 Injured.
TALCA PROPERTY LOSS
is SET AT $12,OOo,O0O
Soldiers Take Over Food Supply
as Tents House Homeless
Thousands.
By the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
SANTIAGO, Chile, December s.
President Ibanez today was on the scene
directing relief measures for the sur
vivors of an earthquake which devas-
tated large area $50 miles to the
south of Santiago. A casualty list COM
piled from various unofficial sources
placed the deaths at 23O, with more
than 400 injured.
Martial law was established in Talca,
an industrial city of $4,000 population,
which apparently bore the brunt of the
quake. Official advices from there said
that only 10 per cent of the houses
were habitable. Buildings not razed by
the quake were being demolished to
avert further danger from a sudden coll
lapse. The deaths at Talca were esti-
mated at 108, with 800 injured.
Relief Trains Dispatched.
Relief trains were speeding into the
stricken area, regular railway schedules
having been Cancelled so as to give
them the right of way.
President Ibanez, who had been in
the South of Chile, hurried to Talca as
soon as he learned of the catastrophe.
He found that relief work had been set
IN motion by Minister of War Blanche,
VINO heW to Talca by airplane from the
capital. Firemen and various organiza-
lions OF young men aided the mounted
police in caring for sufferers and acting
as guards. Aid offered by the Red
Cross was also accepted.
Soldiers were ordered to shoot on
sight any marauders. Troops took over
most OF the food supply to prevent loot
ing and they were rationing it out.
Inus any effort on the part of specula-
tors to take advantage of an emergency
by raising prices was blocked.
Refugees arriving from Talca es-
timated that the damage there would
amount to 100,000,000 pesos (about
$4,000 .000). The hospital there was
burned after the earthquake and more
tnan 200 persons had to be cared for in
emergency shelter.
Tent hospitals were established
throughout the stricken region .by the
Hea Cross when suitable buildings were
not available.
The naval commander at Port Con-
sutution said that Sd were dead there
~sNA e~SOAV AVO AIlJuE6u. 1IlrGG cruisers
We're sent to the port by the goyern-
ment. The officers found the damage
there was widespread. Inhabitants
We're sleeping in tents in the public
squares, and in dozen other cities
and villages in the region people slept
in the parks and in open spaces on the
outskirts of the ruined towns.
District Is DesoIate.
The unofficial casualty list for the
other places was: Chilian, 80 dead. 80
injured; Teniente Mine, II dead, "nu-
merous other deaths and injuries; Pele-
quen, S dead, injured Santa Cruz,
80 dead; Conception, injured; Ran
cagua, dead; Curico, 2 dead, 4 in
jured, and San Vicente, 4 injured.
The whole vicinity presented a desc
late aspect. Roads were blocked by
fallen trees and wire. Long lines of
refugees were moving over them afoot
or in various conveyances with their
belongings.
A group of government engineers was
making survey of the region today
so that relief work and rehabilitation
might be more effectively organized.