JCB pledges help to Chilean quake relief
JCB has pledged help towards the disaster relief project in Chile following the country’s devastating earthquake. The Staffordshire manufacturer is donating one of its 3C backhoe loaders and a complete set of attachments, together worth $100,000, to help with the clear-up operation.
The quake, which struck Concepcion – Chile’s second largest city, had a magnitude of 8.8 making it one of the most powerful in recent memory.
It has so far claimed the lives of more than 700 people and damaged more than 1.5 million homes. Initial estimates put the cost of repairing the damage between $15- $30bn.
JCB – which has a backhoe factory in Brazil – is supplying the machine through its Chilean dealer Derco, which is also making available free-of-charge a fleet of used machinery for the authorities to use in rebuilding efforts.
Oddly, Derco’s headquarters in the Chilean capital Santiago – 270 miles away from Concepcion – has itself been badly damaged by the quake while their premises in Concepcion appear to be largely unaffected.
Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of the Rocester-based firm, said: “This is one of the most powerful earthquakes on record and it has had a catastrophic effect on Concepcion.
“I hope in some small part our donation will contribute to the rebuilding effort and help some of those people whose lives have been turned upside down by this disaster.”
The contribution to the aid effort follows a series of other JCB machinery donations in recent years to other parts of the world hit by natural disasters, including the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan Province in China, when six backhoe loaders worth over $600,000 and a team of operators were sent from the company’s factory in Shanghai to help the clear-up effort in the region.
JCB also donated machines worth more than £1m to help in the aftermath of the Asian Tsunami in 2004, with JCB diggers deployed to Thailand, southern India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Earlier this year JCB donated equipment worth $150,000 to help the disaster relief effort in Haiti following the devastating earthquake that killed around 220,000 people.
