Survivors Struggle after Morocco Quake Kills 564

25/02/2004| IslamWeb

Thousands of homeless Moroccans struggled to rebuild their lives Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed nearly 600 people forced survivors to spend the night in the open. Hopes dimmed of finding any more people alive in the rubble of devastated mud-brick homes in villages scattered around the Mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima. The death toll from Morocco's worst natural disaster in more than 40 years rose to at least 564, the health minister said. As dozens of aftershocks rippled across the mountainous region and rattled nerves, authorities feared the death toll could climb still higher when search-and-rescue teams reached hamlets far up the Rif mountains. First burials took place Tuesday but the majority of corpses still lay in a makeshift morgue at Al Hoceima airport. In the village of Ait Kamara, 11 miles to the south, many houses were flattened like cardboard boxes. "Here, 90 percent of the houses have been destroyed," deputy mayor Mohammed Amiou told Morocco's state MAP news agency. "Several small villages in the area are without electricity and everybody has left." Many people spent the night in the open or under sheeting and other makeshift shelters because their homes were destroyed. Many were home asleep when the quake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, struck early Tuesday in an area of between 300,000 and 400,000 people. "I woke up to a big bang, I don't even remember how I managed to escape from the house," said Abdelkhalek, a teacher who did not want to give his full name. **INTERNATIONAL AID*** The world community offered help. Former colonial power France was among the first countries to pledge aid, including rescue workers with sniffer dogs and clearance equipment. Algeria, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the United States also offered help. With local help stretched to cope with the scale of the disaster, international aid was welcome. Villagers, some digging with their bare hands or shovels to search for survivors, said heavy equipment and sniffer dogs were needed. "They sent the military which basically ordered us to stop digging, but they couldn't do much themselves for lack of equipment," said Abdelkhalek, the teacher. His parents, three brothers and a sister were killed when their home was reduced to rubble in the nearby hamlet of Ait Abdelaziz where he said 70 percent of houses were destroyed. "My sister was shouting, begging me to lift a big, heavy door under which she was trapped. We could not, she died," he said, sobbing. In Al Hoceima, a fishing port and beach resort of about 70,000 inhabitants, damage was limited but authorities grappled with the dead, injured and homeless from nearby areas. "As soon as we think we've seen all the dead and injured, more keep coming in ambulances," said a doctor at the main Mohammed V hospital, where dozens of corpses were laid out. Many of the injured were being treated in army barracks, health centers and charity homes. Others were airlifted to the capital Rabat, Casablanca and Meknes. North Africa's last major earthquake hit neighboring Algeria last May. It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and killed 2,300 people near the capital Algiers. Morocco, situated on the northwest corner of the African continent and separated from Europe by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar, suffered its worst recorded quake in 1960. It destroyed the Atlantic city of Agadir, killing 12,000 people. MAP said King Mohammed, whose country of some 30 million people is a constitutional monarchy, planned to visit the disaster area. **PHOTO CAPTION*** Local residents and a soldier carry dead bodies in Ait Belaziz. (AFP/Abdelhak Senna)