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Some 28 hours after it left Chile, one wave formed a giant whirlpool off the Philippine island of Canarimes and swallowed nine fishermen along with their boat. An hour later the long east coast of Japan, 10,000 miles from Chile, went under. Warned by a sudden onrush of the sea, the fishermen of the coastal town of Kiritappu raced for high ground, then turned to watch the waves fling their boats into the streets behind them. The waterfront of Hilo, Hawaii was erased by 35 ft. waves.
Fight for Bread. Across the Pacific, heavy losses piled up: in the Philippines 20 dead and $150,000 damage;*in Hawaii 56 dead, 8 missing, $50 million damage; in Japan 107 dead, 86 missing. $50 million damage. And in Chile, where at week's end the earth still trembled, the death count climbed toward 5,000 and the damage toward $400 million.
Planes and ships from across the world headed for Chile filled with serums, water purifiers, blankets, clothes, food. Fifty-four U.S. Air Force transport planes airlifted two 400-bed Army field hospitals, lugged relief supplies to shattered towns and cities inside the earthquake region. The first shipments of help only scratched the surface of the need. When a trainload of refugees pulled out of half-destroyed Valdivia, those left behind called after it: "We are hungry! Please send us bread and milk!" At week's end, as hunger grew deeper, desperate men fought with knives for chunks of bread, and troops were forced to fire in the air to keep food lines from rioting.
* The force of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake was 8.3, and that of the worst quake on record, the one in Assam, India, in 1950, was 8.7. -In the wake of the seismic wave, the Philippines' main island of Luzon was swamped by an 18-hour downpour caused by Tropical Storm Lucille. In the floods that followed, 108 were drowned and 150 were missing.