Iran quake survivors say aid slow to arrive
Officials call off rescues, say no hope of more survivors from quake that left hundreds dead
Exhausted and exposed to freezing cold, survivors of a weekend earthquake in western Iran begged authorities for food and shelter on Tuesday, saying aid was slow to reach them.
Iranian officials called off rescue operations earlier in the day on the grounds there was little chance of finding more survivors from the quake, which killed at least 530 people and injured thousands more. It was Iran’s deadliest earthquake in more than a decade.
Survivors, many left homeless by Sunday’s 7.3 magnitude quake that struck villages and towns in Kermanshah province along the mountainous border with Iraq, struggled through another bleak day on Tuesday in need of food, water and shelter.
Iran has so far declined offers of foreign assistance to deal with the aftermath of the tremor, which officials said damaged 30,000 homes and completely destroyed two villages.
The US government expressed its condolences, a White House spokesman said. “The United States expresses its sincere sympathy and condolences to those affected by the earthquake in northern Iraq and Iran,” he said, adding Washington had not received requests from the Iraqi government for help.
Hungry and cold
“We are hungry. We are cold. We are homeless. We are alone in this world,” a weeping Maryam Ahang, who lost 10 members of her family in the hardest hit town of Sarpol-e-Zahab, told Reuters by telephone. “My home is now a pile of mud and broken tiles. I slept in the park last night. It is cold and I am scared.”
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged state agencies on Tuesday to speed up aid efforts. President Hassan Rouhani paid a visit to the stricken region, promising to resolve “the problems in the shortest time”.
Thousands of people huddled in makeshift camps while many others chose to spend another cold night in the open because they feared more tremors after some 230 aftershocks.
By Tuesday morning Iranian officials said there was no longer any likelihood of finding survivors and called off the search.
Nearby hospitals took in many of the injured, state television said, airing footage of survivors waiting to be treated. Hundreds of critically injured were dispatched to hospitals in Tehran.
Iran’s Red Crescent said emergency shelter had been provided for thousands of homeless people but a lack of electricity and water, as well as blocked roads, hindered aid supply efforts.
“People in some villages are still in dire need of food, water and shelter,” said Faramraz Akbari, governor of Qasr-e Shirin county in Kermanshah province.
“It is cold. My children are freezing. We have water and food but no tent. The quake did not kill us but the cold weather will kill us,” a woman in her 30s said.
Survivors desperately needed tents with elderly people and babies as young as a one-yearold sleeping in the cold for two straight nights.