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A major
earthquake of a magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter scale shook central
and southern Peru on August 15, 2007 at 23:40:57
UTC (18:40:57 local time).
Lasting close to 210 seconds, it was one of the most violent
earthquakes in Peru in recent history.
Unfortunately, the death toll was high and thousands of persons are
now homeless. Material damages were severe, and the towns that were
affected have no energy, gas or clean water.
Fixed
and mobile phone networks broke down, and the Pan-American Highway
between the area called "Cabeza de Toro" and the entrance to Pisco
through the District of San Clemente, as well as other roads in the
other areas affected by the quake, collapsed, preventing motor
vehicles from going to the area.
It
should be indicated that the region affected by this earthquake
accounts for 3% of the country’s gross domestic product, because of
growth in the agro-export sector and textile manufacturing.
Nevertheless, the most affected area was the textile industry, which
came to a complete standstill, leaving more than 5,000 persons
unemployed.
In view
of the situation in Peru, Mr. Raúl Cisneros Matusita, Director General
of Satélites Mexicanos, S.A. de C. V. (SATMEX), expressed his concern
for the severe damage in Peru and set up a Committee to Help Peru in
SATMEX to identify those options that could be useful for the Republic
of Peru.
Likewise, thanks to Recommendation CCP.II/REC. 20 (VIII-06) “Measures
to ensure availability of GMPCS during Emergencies and Natural
Disasters” of Permanent Consultative Committee II: Radiocommunications
including Broadcasting, which provides for the immediate availability
of communications after a catastrophic natural disaster such as an
earthquake, SATMEX in coordination with the
Secretariat of CITEL offered the Peruvian
Government the best in SATMEX’s satellite capacity to help restore
communications in Peru.
Alonso Picazo
ViceChair
Working Group Relative to Satellite
Systems to Provide Fixed and Mobile Services
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Helping Peru because of
the earthquake in August 2007
