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The Red Cross has doubled its aid appeal for Chileans made homeless by last month's massive earthquake, saying the costs of the disaster will be greater than anticipated.
The Red Cross hiked its appeal to 12.9 million dollars (9.4 million euros) after devastation from the February 27 earthquake and tsunami that struck much of south-central Chile became apparent in the days after the event.
The funds will "provide more comprehensive assistance to a greater number of families", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement.
The money will be directed towards health services, aid in obtaining a shelter, and water and sanitation services for one year, it said.
IFRC Secretary General Bekele Geleta, currently on a visit to Santiago, said that in talks with outgoing President Michelle Bachelet and regional officials it became clear "that emergency and transitional shelter were absolute priorities, especially with the rainy season beginning very soon and winter just around the corner."
It will take months to rebuild the many severely damaged hospitals, he said.
"In the meantime, the health needs of the population in those regions must be met," Geleta said.
The IFRC, citing Chilean government figures, put the death toll at 528, mostly due to a tsunami that followed the earthquake. Chilean officials say they have identified 497 of those killed, while scores of others have been reported missing.
Emergency officials are still visiting small coastal villages, many virtually wiped out by the tsunami.
Two million people were affected by the quake and 500,000 houses damaged, according to Chilean figures. Officials however do not have an accurate count of the number of people that need immediate shelter.
Tent villages can be seen in some of the worst quake-affected areas, but many people have also fled the area or temporarily moved in with friends and relatives.
While there is little visible international aid in the quake-stricken areas -- no foreign-operated soup kitchens, for example -- groups like the US military and the Turkish Red Crescent society have opened field hospitals.
Most foreign aid has come as cash donations, Bachelet's representative in quake-stricken Constitucion, Laura Albornoz, earlier told AFP.
While the rainy season normally starts in April, rain is already falling in southern Chile. These last days of summer are hot, but temperatures sink to bone-chilling levels at night, especially in the coastal mountain range region.
Bachelet, who leaves office on Thursday, is ending her presidency with 84 percent overall approval rating, according to a poll by the firm Admimark.
Seventy-five percent of those surveyed approved of Bachelet's handling of the earthquake, suggesting that she had succeeded in riding out early criticism that her government was slow to respond to the disaster.
Bachelet fired the head of the navy's Oceanography Service (SHOA) on Friday, saying he had failed to provide a clear warning of the killer tsunami.
The survey was conducted March 3-6 by telephone with 1,129 people, including residents of the Bio Bio and Maule regions, the hardest hit by the February 27 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The poll has a three percent margin of error.
Meanwhile in Washington, US lawmakers pushed Tuesday for a measure that would let US taxpayers get a tax writeoff for donating money to Chile quake victims.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin, a Democrat, and Representative Dave Camp, the panel's top Republican, introduced a bill to count charitable gifts made before April 15, 2010, against 2009 taxes.
The legislation is modeled on a bill passed after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
The US Congress earlier approved legislation giving the same benefits to people donating funds to Haiti quake victims through March 1, 2010. President Barack Obama signed it into law.
