by Claire Rosemberg Claire Rosemberg - Wed Mar 3, 3:16 pm ET CONSTITUCION, Chile (AFP) - A tsunami alert sent terrified Chileans running for coastal hills Wednesday, while a surge of troops finally brought order to the quake-hit second city of Concepcion after rampant looting. Four days after giant waves swept hundreds to their death, two powerful aftershocks, with magnitudes of 5.9 and 6.0, triggered a brief new tsunami warning along the stretch of Chile's central coast worst hit on Saturday. Thousands of earthquake survivors, some still trying to identify loved ones claimed by monster waves, rushed to higher ground as troops ushered them up hillsides. Some 20 minutes later the alert was lifted. Ignacio Gutierrez, from a Chilean television station, was driving down into the seaside resort of Constitucion when people stopped his car and shouted: "Run, run there is a tsunami." Nelson Muna was bringing food and water for victims when he heard the sirens wailing and reached the panicked scenes: "We saw soldiers running, everyone running out of town. Even the soldiers were scared." The fright came just as thousands of troops, with the help of a strict curfew, finally appeared to have restored some semblance of normality in Concepcion, Chile's second city, after days of post-quake unrest. The government raised the toll from Saturday's 8.8-magnitude quake to 799, but that figure was expected to rise sharply once all the bodies were found in devastated coastal areas. Related article: Tsunami body count climbs in Chile seaside resort President Michelle Bachelet has deployed 14,000 troops to the disaster zone to help distribute food and keep order around Concepcion and the coastal towns. "The reconstruction task will be enormous," said Bachelet, as she addressed the nation, laying out in detail the extent of the damage. Despite being one of Latin America's richest countries, Chile has struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster with the damage put in the tens of billions of dollars. Bachelet said lifeline industries from agriculture to tourism, and from fishing to trade had been decimated by the disaster, but issued a rallying cry: "We will work so that the country emerges from the ruins." In Constitucion, before the tsunami alert came, sobbing relatives visited the morgue to identify swollen remains. Seven unidentified corpses in advanced stages of decomposition were listed as "NN", or "No Name". "Most of the bodies are badly bloated and mutilated, difficult to identify. The stench is terrible," said an army lieutenant. "We're expecting more," said the officer, who would not give his name but whose lapel said Gutierrez. Related article: Death and devastation on Chile's wave-raked coast The handwritten list on a large white board propped against the morgue fence showed 78 dead from the tsunami that razed low-lying areas of this Chilean seaside resort, a holiday paradise before disaster struck. The head of the mayor's office in Constitucion said around 100 people were confirmed dead in that one town alone, but that at least 300 more were missing and feared dead. Authorities, meanwhile, raced to help thousands made homeless and scrambled to defuse an explosive situation in cities and towns where gangs of looters had roamed the streets after one of the strongest earthquakes ever measured. Traffic lights blinked on and neon signs came back to life as electric power returned to some parts of Concepcion, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) south of Santiago. One of the area's biggest supermarkets announced it would be open for business Wednesday, as other businesses and stores assessed whether they could too could resume normal trading. With armored military vehicles guarding strategic points, food rations were being distributed in orderly way, easing public anxiety. Related article: Chileans grow impatient for aid The government extended a curfew from 6:00 pm to noon Wednesday and flooded the city with thousands of troops to restore order in the aftermath of the quake, one of the biggest on record. Similar curfews were also imposed on six other towns badly damaged by the quake, which is said to have affected two million Chileans, or one-eighth of the population |