Earthquake: Church vows to help rebuild Peru

When news of last month's massive earthquake in Peru reached David Utrilla, the Ogden resident flashed back to an awful day more than three decades past.

It was 1974, and Utrilla was a boy living in Peru's capital of Lima when a magnitude 7.2 earthquake shook and twisted the city. The terrifying memories of that seismic violence sparked a fresh fear in Utrilla. He began pounding out the phone numbers of his mother and other relatives living in Peru. At first he couldn't make a connection.

"I was in panic mode."

Finally, one of his relatives answered his call. News was good for Utrilla — no one in his family had been harmed by the magnitude 8 tremor. But he ached for hundreds of his fellow Peruvians who were killed or missing.

"We needed to move fast," said Utrilla, remembering the "call to aid" issued to LDS Peruvians and others living in Utah. A press conference calling for help was staged. An ad hoc grassroots humanitarian organization — "Ayuda Peru" — was formed. And soon local folks were stopping by makeshift distribution centers along the Wasatch Front, dropping off clothing, sleeping bags and other provisions destined for quake victims a continent away.

Such urgency and effort is emblematic of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' collective humanitarian response in the hours, days and weeks following the Aug. 15 quake in southwest Peru. The hardships in victimized Peruvian regions such as Pisco and Ica will be felt for some time. Weeks after the temblor shook the region for some two minutes, entire sections of several communities still resembled bombed-out war zones. Cities of dusty ruins.

Still the church offered relief wherever it could. It's unknown how many lives were eased because of a blanket or a sack of beans donated by the LDS Church — but the numbers are surely in the thousands.

Reymundo Saiiago reluctantly counts himself among Peru's quake victims. He was in his Pisco home when the shaking began. What he felt and witnessed terrified him in ways Utrilla could understand. Death, said Saiiago, was everywhere to be found when the first round of trembling subsided. Meanwhile, the psychological shock of the quake was compounded by several powerful aftershocks and fears that a tsunami would bury his coastal community.

A leader in the church's Pisco Peru Stake, Saiiago joined others in searching for survivors among his congregations. "It was hard to find the members," he said.