President, promise of aid arrive in Chilean quake zone

(CNN) -- Chilean President Michelle Bachelet arrived in the quake zone, announcing a state of emergency and promising aid after three powerful aftershocks rattled the region Thursday, according to state-owned media.

The aftershocks -- magnitudes 6.2, 6.8 and 5.6 -- struck within 13 minutes of each other and came a day after a 7.7-magnitude temblor shook northern Chile, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Thousands of homes were reportedly damaged or flattened.

Bachelet declared states of emergency in Tocopilla, Maria Elena and Quillagua, the state-owned television station TVN reported.

"We are arriving with help, and we are going to continue bringing everything necessary," Bachelet said in a statement on the government's Web site.

Emergency housing, mattresses and medicine are scheduled to be sent to the area, the statement said.

Four Cabinet ministers accompanied Bachelet to help coordinate aid and recovery efforts, according to The Associated Press. See how the quakes left parts of Chile in shambles »

As her bodyguards watched warily, Bachelet walked among swinging power posts and chatted with residents in the debris-strewn Tocopilla, AP reported.

Some residents shouted and held up signs demanding help and Bachelet assured them the government would dole out credits and grants, AP said. It will take a month, however, to assess the damage, she said.

"There is much fear and despair, and that is normal," Bachelet told residents, according to AP. "But people should organize and respond to emergency plans."

The government is flying materials to Tocopilla to build a field hospital, said Ricardo Lagos Weber, secretary general for the Chilean government. Tocopilla is located about 780 miles (1,245 kilometers) north of the capital, Santiago.

In all, Weber said, 14 tons of aid and 500 emergency housing units were being shipped into the area. A government official told AP that Argentina, Ecuador, Spain, Peru, Venezuela and Japan have offered aid as well.

The government is estimating that 4,000 structures were damaged or destroyed, leaving 15,000 people homeless, Weber said.

Weber said declaring the area a disaster zone would speed the arrival of aid.

All three of Thursday's quakes were centered near the port city of Antofagasta.

The 6.2-magnitude quake hit at 12:03 p.m., followed quickly by two more quakes, prompting the evacuation of buildings. Many workers had to leave their offices, said witness Valentina Bustos. Her parents were among those evacuating.

"People are really scared. They just want to go home," Bustos said. Watch I-Report on quakes' effects »

Wednesday's temblor killed at least two people, injured dozens and left thousands of people homeless.

Tocopilla Mayor Louis Moyano told Radio Cooperative: "There are more than 1,000 -- 1,200 houses, at least -- that were totally flattened, and others in bad shape."

"There are a great number of houses that are uninhabitable," Moyano said Wednesday night.

Places that could be used as shelters, such as schools and gyms, were damaged in the quake, the mayor said.

About 40 percent of homes were damaged in Tocopilla, about 21 miles (35 kilometers) from the quake's epicenter, officials estimated.

Fifty miles (81 kilometers) away in the old mining town of Maria Elena, 70 percent of homes were damaged, they said.

World Vision aid worker Paula Saez said Thursday that the quakes and aftershocks had caused many people to panic. One woman was screaming, "Please God, stop these!"

Saez said there were shortages of food and water, but the government was flying in tents, blankets, cots and other supplies. About a third of Tocopilla was without electricity.

Moyano described going through the damaged city, with people asking, "Mayor, my house collapsed. What do I do? Mayor, I don't have water. What do I do?"

"It gets to you," he said.

The Office of National Emergency reported that two women had died and others were injured in Tocopilla. Officials identified one of those killed as 54-year-old Olga Petronila Ortiz Cisternas. The other fatality was an 88-year-old woman.

Wednesday's quake also collapsed a roadway tunnel, temporarily trapping about 50 construction workers. High-level government sources said the workers had been rescued. See where the first quake struck »

The temblor was centered at a depth of 37 miles (60 kilometers)and felt in Peru and Bolivia, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

Chile has been the site of hundreds of strong earthquakes, including the largest one of the 20th century on May 22, 1960. The quake in southern Chile registered a magnitude 9.5, launching a tsunami that caused damage as far away as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Nearly 6,000 people died as a result of the quake and its tsunami. A magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck southern Chile on January 25, 1939, killed 28,000 people. A magnitude-9.0 earthquake in then-southern Peru (now northern Chile) killed 25,000 people in 1868. E-mail to a friend

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