Musician's death deals a fresh blow to El Salvador quake survivors

Tragedy leaves hunger, mourning, at least 683 dead

In this story: Nicaragua rattled by new tremor Retailers warned against overcharging U.S. Army helicopters deliver food RELATED STORIES, SITES

From staff and wire reports

ARMENIA, El Salvador -- Although 682 people had already lost their lives to this weekend's earthquake, it was the 683rd death that brought the sense of tragedy home to the shocked people of El Salvador.

Sergio Moreno, a 22-year-old musician who was pulled alive from the rubble after spending 31 hours entombed under cinderblocks and dirt, died late Tuesday at a hospital.

His near-miraculous rescue had captured Salvadorans, providing a ray of hope amid the despair. After calling for help from beneath the rubble with a cellular phone, rescuers worked more than two days to free him. But his heart and kidneys failed shortly after he was rescued. Doctors revived him and later amputated his legs, but they were unable to save him.

MESSAGE BOARD Central American quake    RESOURCES El Salvador National Emergency Committee information on quake aftermath (Spanish)    DONATIONS To make donations from the United States call: (in English:) 1-800-HELP-NOW 1-800-435-7669 (in Spanish:) 1-800-257-7575    MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater  IN-DEPTH Earthquakes of the 20th Century    AUDIO Journalist Martin Austurias provides an eyewitness account from Guatemala 730K/31 sec. AIFF or WAV sound    ALSO Small earthquake, aftershock rumble region north of Los Angeles

Local television stations broke away from regular programming to report his death.

Even as signs emerged that everyday life was returning after the earthquake -- lines snaked around the block at newly reopened banks in the capital -- the isolated countryside largely stood still in hunger and mourning.

Fraying nerves still further, U.S. military experts decided to inspect the Santa Ana crater, which has been the focus of Salvadoran fears for volcanic activity following Saturday's disaster.

"Our mission is sending an assessment team to evaluate the condition of the volcano," Jeremy Heckler, a member of the U.S. military task force involved in the massive international relief operation, told Reuters.

Nicaragua rattled by new tremor

In Las Colinas, a neighborhood near San Salvador that was buried by a landslide, a few crews looked for bodies on Wednesday morning. But they worked more slowly, the sense of urgency gone with the hope of finding survivors.

Meanwhile, a magnitude 5.0 earthquake rattled nearby Nicaragua at about 1 a.m. Wednesday, sending residents of the capital, Managua, running into the streets. The quake cracked walls and shook buildings slightly, but no deaths or injuries were reported.

In addition to the death toll of 683 in El Salvador, at least six people died in neighboring Guatemala. More than 2,500 people were injured and nearly 45,000 others were evacuated.

In many places, authorities were overwhelmed by the sheer number of bodies. Many were buried in a long pit at the municipal cemetery in Santa Tecla, the town where Las Colinas is located.

Marcela Pena, 31, remained at the spot where her house once stood, looking for her 14-year-old daughter Betrisia. She said she has been at the morgue and the cemetery to look for her but hasn't found her.

"I see the bodies and I am sad," she said Wednesday. "But there are too many bodies to be sad. I have grown accustomed to death."

Many Salvadorans living in the United States began arriving on flights Wednesday after days of desperation trying to get home. In San Salvador, people waited for hours to withdraw cash at newly reopened banks, bottled water was snatched off shelves, and several restaurants and businesses opened their doors offering scaled-back services.

Retailers warned against overcharging

With large lines forming for increasingly scarce supplies of bottled water and staple foods such as beans, rice and corn, Congress decreed a price freeze threatening retailers with prison if they overcharge customers or hoard goods.

A 33-ounce (one-liter) bottle of water costs about $1 in a country where the minimum monthly wage is about $140 and an estimated one in four people live in extreme poverty.

The emergency 90-day measure, which also fixed water and electricity rates and public transport prices, broke the trend of President Francisco Flores of modernizing the tiny $6 billion-a-year, free-market economy.

U.S. Army helicopters deliver food

Away from the cities, much of the countryside appeared far from recovery.

In Comasagua, a city 27 kilometers (17 miles) west of the capital where more than 140 people were killed and roads were rendered impassable by landslides, hungry residents swarmed around U.S. Army helicopters bringing food, water and medicine.

"All we have is God and the helicopter that brings food," said homemaker Fidelia Guardao.

Virtually all businesses remained shut in Armenia, a working-class town of 30,000 people 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital, where 124 people died.

Truckloads of fruit began rumbling into town, allowing the outdoor central market to sell limited amounts of food. There will be no meat here for some time, however, because the local slaughterhouse collapsed in the quake, killing a watchman and a pen full of scrawny cows.

Electricity has been restored, but the only water to be found came from dusty puddles in the middle of buckled streets.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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