Utah rushes to offer humanitarian aid to Peruvian quake victims

Help from Utah is on its way to Peru, and more is planned to be dispatched to the quake-devastated country this weekend.

Globus Relief, a Salt Lake-based humanitarian aid organization, said it sent $82,000 worth of surgical instruments with a shipment from LDS Humanitarian Services, which was airlifted to Lima Friday. It is also sending $200,000 worth of pharmaceuticals, including antibiotics and pain relievers, and plans to dispatch a truckload of relief goods next week, a Globus Relief news release said.

Scott Trotter, spokesman for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said volunteers worked Friday evening to fill some 3,000 food boxes to be sent along with medical supplies, surgical instruments, hygiene kits and tarps.

The LDS Church plans to send a cargo plane of supplies to Peru this weekend. It had initially provided 10,000 blankets and other supplies after Wednesday's 8.0 quake.

In Pisco, Peru, LDS meetinghouses are overflowing with those whose homes were damaged or destroyed, said Roberto Williams Atuncar Nieto, LDS district president for Pisco.

He said a 2-year-old girl was among the seven LDS Church members killed in the quake that devastated Peru's southern desert region and killed more than 500 people.

"A wall fell on her at her house, so we are having a viewing for her with her parents," he said.

The toddler was the only member of the congregation who was killed, but there are injured people who need medical attention. And there are homeless people, sleeping in the street or in cars.

"We need tents ... for people to sleep," he said. "It is cold here, and we need medicine for the sick."

The LDS Church earlier had reported that all of its missionaries in Peru are safe and that there was little or no damage to the LDS temple and the Missionary Training Center in Lima.

Fourteen church members were seriously injured, and more than 70 homes were destroyed or badly damaged, Trotter said.

Some 600 to 700 church members and their families are being housed temporarily at church meetinghouses, Trotter said.

The church has more than 430,000 members, 735 congregations and seven missions in Peru. The Associated Press reported the death toll had reached at least 510 on Friday, and another 1,500 people were injured, overwhelming the few hospitals in Peru's southern desert region.

In Utah, the Peruvian community has set up a Peru relief effort account at Wells Fargo.

Elder Ralph Peck and his wife, Sister Roberta Peck, were on their way home from the LDS Church's administrative offices in Lima Wednesday evening.