AP Top News at 3:06 a.m. EST

AP Top News at 3:06 a.m. EST

Chile assesses damage from mammoth earthquake

TALCA, Chile — A weeping man strokes the hand of a dead woman in a collapsed cafe. Survivors huddle around bonfires in the rubble of their homes. Smashed cars lie beneath bridges torn asunder by one of history’s strongest earthquakes. Authorities in Chile put the official death toll from Saturday’s 8.8-magnitude quake at 214, but said they believed the number would grow. They said 1.5 million Chileans were affected and 500,000 homes severely damaged by the mammoth temblor.