Bush: El Salvador To Get $52M

President Bush has pledged $52 million in aid this year to El Salvador to help the country recover from devastating recent earthquakes that killed 1,150 people, Salvadoran President Francisco Flores said Friday.

After meeting Bush at the White House, Flores told reporters that Bush also proposed to grant temporary protection status to Salvadoran families residing illegally in the United States "allowing families in the United States to send their aid."

Flores said Bush had pledged $52 million in aid this year and another $58 million for next year.

A succession of six earthquakes, the largest measuring 4.6 of magnitude and strong enough to produce heavy damage to populated areas, shook El Salvador last week, causing panic among the population but no injuries.

The international community rushed to provide financial and humanitarian support to Salvadorans left homeless and injured by the earthquakes, but the U.S. government has been slow to respond.

So far, it has shelled out about $10 million — far less than the $60 million in emergency aid and $98 million in reconstruction funds the U.S provided after a smaller earthquake struck the country in 1986.

About 8,000 people have been injured.

In the San Salvador suburb of Las Colinas, hundredof homes were buried when a mountainside collapsed and claimed the lives of more than half of those killed nationwide.

Nearly 900 surrounding homes were evacuated for fear that more of the surrounding mountainside — which scientists have declared unstable — could come tumbling down. It is unclear when, or if, any will be allowed to return.

Before the quake, environmentalists had asked Congress — and municipal officials had asked the Supreme Court — to block the construction of mansions on the Las Colinas hillside that collapsed, saying the trees there helped prevent landslides.

But Congress didn't respond and the Supreme Court denied the petition, allowing construction to continue. Several estates, complete with swimming pools and gatehouses, were built. They also were buried in the landslide.

A lack of building regulations likely contributed to many of the houses lost across the country, said Paul Bell, regional aid coordinator for U.S. AID.

"All over the region we have a lack of consistency in zoning and building codes," he said. "You do not have to be an engineer to see that there are places where you simply should not build."