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Journalism of Courage
QAEN, IRAN, May 11: Military aircraft rushed food, clothes and medicine on Sunday to remote mountains in north-eastern Iran, where a powerful earthquake killed at least 2,400 people. Aftershocks shook what was left standing, forcing tens of thousands to camp in the streets of stricken villages.
Today, thousands of volunteers had poured into the villages and towns in a convoy of trucks, pickups and buses to help. They dug through the rubble with bare hands to look for bodies. Others distributed relief supplies. In most villages, streets had disappeared into rows of rubble. Survivors beat their chests and wailed in anguish. Others washed the bodies of their loved ones and buried them in mass graves.
At least 6,000 more were injured in the 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck yesterday near the town of Qaen, a remote area about 110 km west of the Afghan border.
Most of the damage was in the 100-km stretch between Birjand and Qaen, a region dotted by poor villages and mud huts. The official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said at least 2,000 people died in villages around Qaen, 394 in Birjand and two in Khavaf town. IRNA said there was considerable damage in Afghanistan, too, but Red Cross and UN officials there said they had not yet received reports of major damage.
Iranian officials appealed for international aid for the 40,000 people left homeless in 200 villages and towns, many of them wrecked by the quake or cut off by landslides that followed.
In the town of Hajiabab, the mangled frames of Toyota pickup trucks poked out of the collapsed building of a used car shop.
Tens of thousands of villagers camped in the streets, fearing the effects of the aftershocks. Some had a preliminary magnitude of 5.5, strong enough to cause considerable damage.
Temperatures dropped to 5 degree C overnight in the villages, but then soared to 28 degree C, raising concern that bodies under the rubble might begin putrefying and spread disease.
“Much needs to be done. The priority is to remove the dead bodies and bury them as soon as possible,” said Reza Alavi, a civil servant leading relief efforts in one of the villages.
In makeshift hospitals, beds were filled with injured in blood-soaked bandages, many of them suffering cuts and broken bones. Intravenous sacks hung from donated coat hangars.
“I can’t deal with this alone,” Mohammad Hossein Mozaffar said as he put a cast on the leg of a wailing 5-year-old boy clinging to his mother in hard-hit Qaen.
Four US-made C-130 planes and six helicopters rushed in at least 80 tonne of aid, the IRNA said, quoting the Deputy Interior Minister for Natural Disaster, Rasul Zargar.
