A second disaster

A second disaster -- looting -- brought further destruction to the town, Francisco Bustamente said.

"There used to be sugar and oil in the warehouses but all was looted," he said. "Everything has been taken away."

"People opened the containers and took everything they could: washing machines and plasma televisions," said Angel Bustamente, who used to work in the port.

He said he had to travel to nearby city Valparaiso to bring food and water to his brothers' family.

Looters here stopped short of using methods seen in Concepcion, where supermarkets were burned to destroy inventory records. Even so, officials estimate that it would take 10 years for Talcahuano to fully recover.

Angel Bustamente said the government has refrained from sending in troops to deal with the looters, because of memories of the 1973 to 1990 military dictatorship.

"It has been 20 years since military rule but they are still afraid, " he said.

However, "there were robberies, murders, rapes, everything you can imagine,and the government should have sent the military sooner," Angel Bustamente said.

Government reticence towards the military is understandable. Chile's President Michelle Bachelet was detained in Villa Grimaldi, an infamous army torture center, when she was a young woman. Her father, Alberto Bachelet, who had headed the nation's food distribution agency died in a military jail.