As Chileans work to recover victims and begin to repair damage done by Saturday's 8.8-magnitude earthquake, the country's large LDS population has come together to help each other, said Salt Lake City resident Marc Boyden.

His father, Stephen Boyden, is serving as executive secretary to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints area presidency in Santiago, Chile. People with damaged or destroyed homes are staying in chapels or with other church members, he told his son. And the local bishop's storehouse, which helps the poor with food and necessities, is "very busy," Marc Boyden said.

The country has nearly 555,000 LDS members, according to the church. That ranks as one of the highest concentrations in the world, at 3.4 percent of Chile's total population. In the U.S., Mormons constitute about 2 percent of the population, according to church data and numbers from the CIA World Factbook.

In October, LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson announced plans for a second temple to serve the country's swelling LDS population, to be built in Concepción, the largest city nearest the earthquake's epicenter. Concepción sustained major damage and deaths from the quake, according to news reports.

The Chilean daily newspaper, El Sur , reported in December that the LDS Church purchased a site for the temple in the Pedro de Valdivia area and paid at least $6 million.

It isn't clear how the quake might affect plans for the new temple, said LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter. The country's other LDS Temple and its Missionary Training Center, both located in Santiago, do not appear to have been seriously damaged, Trotter said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is waiting for an assessment of the country's needs before sending humanitarian aid, Trotter said Sunday.

"We're still in the holding pattern," though plans should be made soon, he said.

Meanwhile, people in the hardest-hit parts of the country are sleeping in the streets to stay out of damaged homes, said Kiko Cornejo, director of the Latino Community Information and Education Center in Salt Lake City, and a native of Curicó, Chile.

Cornejo has spoken with his brother in Curicó, and said the quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks. He said 80 people were killed in Curicó, which he described as about the size of West Valley City.

"The houses are not good to be inside," he said. "There are old ladies walking around with little kids, just crying, looking at their houses. There's nothing there."

Tribune editor D.B. Troester contributed to this report.