Residents await the arrival of State Secretary of the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, outside Lord of Luren church which was partially destroyed by the earthquake in Ica on Friday. Bertone is on an official visit to Peru but will also visit the earthquake victims in Pisco city. - Reuters

PISCO, Peru (AP):

An unforgiving wind lashes Juan Escate as hehuddles around a bonfire with his three children, chilling him to the bone as he ponders how to fulfill his wife's dying plea.

The recent magnitude-8 earthquake sent Escate's home on the outskirts of Pisco tumbling down, burying his wife Doris in rubble as she rushed their 16-year-old daughter to safety.

"Promise me you'll take care of my children," he says were his wife's last words.

But life is hard on the streets of this gritty port city on Peru's central coast, where Escate and thousands of others live in makeshift shelters, often crudely constructed wooden huts covered by plastic. Icy ocean winds carry sand from the beaches and people stay awake all night to guard against thieves.

Food is scarce. Adults say they are given a handful of rice with some potatoes at midday. Children are given hot oatmeal for breakfast.

Aid

Escate's eyes are fixed on a giant pot of steaming rice and potatoes. The food is not for him and his hungry neighbors but for the group of soldiers who are protecting the homeless families from robbery attempts - aid is more valuable now than personal belongings.

"I don't know what I'm going to do. My children were left without a mother and I have to take care of them alone," said Escate, his hands callused from years as a garbage collector. The 16-year-old daughter survived but suffered a fractured hip and is in a Lima hospital.

"She doesn't know her mother has left us," he said.

More than 85 per cent of the homes here were destroyed and at least 340 people were killed, according to Civil Defense officials. The death toll of the quake, including other cities, stands at 514, according to the Civil Defense.

Wrapped in thick, scratchy blankets, survivors listen to the sound of the crackling fire that burns on one of the few street corners in the San Clemente district now blocked by dusty rubble.