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Jamie Wilson Guardian Unlimited
As the death
toll from the Indian earthquake continued its inexorable rise
yesterday with more than 20,000 people feared dead, the sheer
scale of the disaster appeared to be overwhelming the authorities.
Despite the arrival of dozens of international rescue workers
to help the 5,000 Indian troops hunting for survivors of the disaster,
many remote villages had yet to be reached by rescue workers.
With more
than 500,000 people made homeless by the earthquake, the state
government issued an urgent appeal for further shipments of food,
shelter and medicines from the international community.
The government
in Delhi asked for $1.5bn (about £1bn) from the World Bank
and Asian Development Bank to help in the reconstruction.
Relief efforts
have been hampered by continuing aftershocks measuring as high
as 5.9 on the Richter scale, while damage to major roads has further
delayed the distribution of much-needed supplies. Hospitals, many
without power or water, have been overwhelmed by the number of
injured, with more than 30,000 people requiring treatment in Bhuj
alone, a town with a population of 150,000 near the epicentre
of the quake.
An Indian
military source, after completing an aerial assessment of the
surrounding area, described the situation as "utter devastation".
With time
running out for those trapped underneath the rubble, teams of
rescue experts from abroad were only given the go-ahead to travel
to the area on Saturday; the Japanese government said 35 rescuers
trained to locate people trapped under debris were being held
up by bureaucratic delays in India.
Although earthquakes
are a regular occurrence in a country that is prone to natural
disasters, in the 24 hours following the earthquake - when the
chance of finding survivors is highest - most of the rescue efforts
were led by volunteers, frustrated by the lack of back-up and
lifting equipment from the authorities.
Yesterday,
two days after the earthquake struck, the state authorities were
still frantically looking for forklifts, cranes and metal-cutting
equipment to reach trapped victims, while rescue workers and residents
clawed through the rubble with sticks, iron rods and bare hands.
A 69-strong
team from the British International Rescue Corps finally arrived
in Bhuj yesterday morning. It took the team 11 hours to make the
journey from Ahmedabad to Bhuj, where they immediately set to
work using thermal imaging cameras, listening equipment and mini-cameras
to hunt for survivors in one of the estimated 80 high-rise blocks
that had collapsed in the city.
By last night
the team had rescued three people from the rubble, including a
seven-year-old boy and his mother.
The government
has ordered reinforcements for the 5,000 troops, and more heavy
engineering equipment to the affected area. Teams, including sniffer
dogs, from the UK, Canada, the Russian Federation, Germany, Switzerland,
Turkey and the United Nations, had either arrived or were en route
yesterday, while a French team was on standby at Charles de Gaulle
airport in Paris.
Even Pakistan,
India's traditional enemy and itself hit by dozens of deaths,
has offered relief aid to its neighbour. The chances of finding
survivors, however, was diminishing by the hour last night.
According
to a spokeswoman for Rapid UK, which makes up the British deployment,
along with UK Fire Service and civil defence personnel, finding
anybody alive between 48 and 72 hours after an earthquake was
akin to a miracle.
"The
body can only last for so long without water. And while people
have been pulled out alive after as long as 14 days, it is really
very unusual to find anybody after 72 hours."
The focus
of the rescue operation will inevitably switch in the next 24
hours from trying to find the living to the grim but essential
task of recovering the bodies of the dead.
One Indian
army official said yesterday: "If the bodies are not removed
soon there could be a major risk of disease spreading."
Public health
teams have been flown in to Gujarat to combat disease in the region
where seasonal temperatures can rise to 30C (86F). "The rush
of bodies has really picked up since early morning," said
one hospital worker in Ahmedabad. "There are no survivors
now, only the dead are being brought in."
A spokeswoman
for the Red Cross said the priority was to provide food, blankets
and shelter for the homeless.
It said it
had already sent 100,000 blankets and 600 tents to the disaster
zone, but has launched an urgent appeal for more.
Most gas pipelines,
power supply stations and water services were knocked out by the
earthquake, and the home minister of Gujarat, Haren Pandya, said
people were in desperate need of food, water and petrol.
"Immediately
we need 25,000 to 30,000 tents to set up some camps for the homeless,"
he said.
The Indian
air force said that it had 40 cargo planes and military aircraft
ferrying engineering equipment, mobile kitchens, food, water,
tents, blankets and power generators.
• Ashok
Nathwani, a British doctor who had gone to India with his father
to scatter his mother's ashes, was among the victims of the earthquake,
a spokeswoman for the Portsmouth Health Care NHS trust said yesterday.
Red Cross
appeal
Call 08705 125125 or www.redcrossdonations.org.uk
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