Merchants in this port city are struggling to recover a month after Chile's monster earthquake, dealing with destroyed buildings, mud-caked stores and merchandise depleted from looting.

Concepcion and the nearby port of Talcahuano, with a combined population of half a million, along with the town of Constitucion suffered the heaviest damage in the 8.8-magnitude quake and ensuing tsunami, which killed at least 452 people and caused some 30 billion dollars in damage.

Nearly 100 people are still missing after the quake, one of the most powerful on record, struck a broad region south of Santiago on February 27. It was followed by more than 200 aftershocks.

A month later, Talcahuano businesses are starting from scratch as they struggle to reopen and get things back to normal.

Antonio Hanania was asleep when the quake struck at 3:34 am, and rushed to the five large stores he owns in Talcahuano after sunrise.

The quake destroyed the ground floor of his stores. Then a tsunami wave dumped up to 20 centimeters (eight inches) of mud inside the buildings.

"The first floors of all the stores were demolished," Hanania told AFP. "So I focused on rescuing the most important documents. Then I returned to Concepcion to take care of my family."

Just as he headed home, looters swarmed the business district, and picked the area clean over the next four days. Soldiers were eventually sent in to restore order.

"The downtown area became a no man's land, and nobody did anything to stop this," said Hanania.

He blamed the government of then-president Michelle Bachelet for inaction. "How could they not have expected this, when the mayors were on the radio asking for urgent military action?" he asked, anger rising in his voice.

The looting "was the great earthquake," said Hanania, who has 120 employees and no way to pay them.

"I have workers with 30 years of service — how am I going to fire them? But I can't pay them either… there is no solution to this for at least three more months.

"We have to start from scratch," he added.

One of Hanania's workers spoke up for his boss. "We can't leave him alone in these circumstances," said the man, who gave his name as Daniel. "We're all in on this — aside from the authorities, who haven't even approached us to offer help."

On the other side of Talcahuano, a trawler named "Don Renato" was parked in front of Teresa Gutierrez's house.

"For this ship to have reached here, the tide must have risen at least five meters (16 feet)," she said.

"Now it's so sad to see the captain, who sleeps in the boat, lighting bonfires next to it to stay warm."

Gutierrez recalls the deafening sound of the earthquake. "That's why we panicked and immediately fled to the hills, we knew a tsunami would come," she said.

"My house was left standing, but I lost everything inside."

A psychologist sees residents for free in a tent pitched in the town square. But the lines are long, and the psychologist is only available four hours a day.

Military commanders on Friday lifted a nighttime curfew in the Concepcion area that had been imposed to halt widespread looting, but soldiers here were still blocking off the business area. Only store owners and their workers were allowed into the area.

President Sebastian Pinera, who took office on March 11, told a crowd gathered in the Concepcion town square Saturday that soldiers will "gradually swap rifles for shovels" to participate in reconstruction efforts.

Opponents have criticized Pinera for lacking a clear reconstruction plan.

But on Saturday the billionaire ex-businessman vowed to achieve six-percent annual economic growth during his presidency, as well as create 200,000 new jobs.

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