Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
IRAN: Focus on relief in aftermath of Kerman quake
24 February


[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United 
Nations]

HOUTKAN, 24 February (IRIN) - The earthquake that struck Iran's 
southeastern Kerman province early on Tuesday turned the mountain 
village of Houtkan into mud, killed many of its inhabitants and reduced 
the survivors to homelessness and destitution. The village was almost 
totally destroyed and, because it is so isolated, help has been slow to 
reach the stricken community.

On Thursday, the weather was very cold and a heavy mist hung over 
Houtkan, lending an already nightmarish scene a surreal and ghostly 
quality. The steep hillside to which the village used to cling was a 
mass of broken walls, bent telephone poles and twisted metal door and 
window frames, poking out at odd angles from the thick mud.

Some rooms were recessed into the hillside and could be seen completely 
intact amid the devastation, with a family's possessions left neatly as 
they were the night before the quake. Livestock wandered up and down the 
hillside and along ruined alleys seeking food. Survivors tried to lift a 
dead cow from the pathway.

RESCUE TURNS TO RELIEF

More than 500 people are now believed to have died in the earthquake, 
the Iranian government says. But it will take more time to establish the 
exact number of deaths as rescue workers are hampered in their search 
for bodies by continuing poor weather in the mountains. However, the 
relief operation is well under way. Tents were provided to most families 
in the more easily accessible areas on the first day of the earthquake 
and to others on the second day.

"I was making tea and then I realised everything was shaking," Fatemeh 
Mansouri, a middle-aged woman who lost a daughter in the disaster, told 
IRIN. "I managed to get my son out of the house but my young daughter 
was trapped inside by her legs. I knew where she was and so I lifted the 
rubble off her."

As Mansouri spoke, another son was erecting a tent behind her. He had 
travelled from Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf when he heard the news. 
She stood forlornly in the road pointing at the crumbled remains of her 
house and shouted: "God, God, God!"

The tremor measured 6.4 on the Richter scale and was quite deep, 
reducing the violence at the surface. However, rescue workers have said 
the death toll was high due to what they described as poor building 
techniques. After the Bam earthquake in December 2003, only 250 km 
southeast in the same province, experts said the more than 30,000 deaths 
were partly the result of the widespread use of traditional mud bricks 
in house construction.

POOR CONSTRUCTION LED TO HIGH DEATH TOLL

As the steel and concrete twisted and cracked, the bricks crumbled onto 
the inhabitants, choking them with dust and filling air pockets in which 
survivors might have lived for a few days. After the Kerman quake, rain 
made the mud heavier, crushing those inside, and reducing the flow of 
air into the rubble. However, two young girls were reported to have been 
rescued from the debris the day after the earthquake in Houtkan. Many 
others were only partially trapped and were rescued by frantic relatives 
and soldiers in the hours immediately after the quake.

Their story was exceptional. Almost all of those who were buried under 
the rubble for more than a few hours died there. Down the steep muddy 
slope that is all that remains of Houtkan, Iranian Red Crescent Society 
(IRCS) workers and soldiers dug with long spades into craters in the 
rubble. They wore bright bibs, surgical masks and rubber gloves. Sifting 
through the mud and dust in what had been somebody's kitchen, they 
uncovered some blue cloth: the shirt of a man.

As they dug further, a hand could be seen. Workers and soldiers leant 
down to pull the body free, dragging the head and upper torso of an 
elderly man clear of the rubble. Livid and red bruises were clearly 
visible on his back and his shirt sleeve was stained dark with blood. 
The smell was powerful. Waiting soldiers passed down a bright red 
blanket as an IRCS worker tried to free the corpse's legs.

The body was lifted onto the blanket and from there to a blue plastic 
stretcher that had been carried down by the IRCS. A team carried it away 
as the soldiers kept digging. More bodies were thought to lie under the 
rubble in the same house. The old man's body, still wrapped in the 
blanket, was taken to the village entrance where a line of others were 
being identified or tagged before being carried away for burial in the 
nearby town of Zerand.

The body of a child, arms held behind his head, was laid down. An old 
man identified him and another body next to him. The name Hossein 
Golestani was written on a stiff leg in permanent marker.

HELPING THE SURVIVORS

Poor weather has made rescue conditions more dangerous. Sinking to their 
shins in mud, rescue workers picked their way across the treacherous 
rubble. Holes opened up underfoot where what had appeared to be a 
pathway was revealed as the ceiling of a weakened room. The mist cut 
visibility to less than 50 metres at times and light showers of 
hailstones fell on the freezing ground.

Poor visibility had made it difficult for helicopters to assess the 
damage in Houtkan quickly. Heavy rain on the day of the quake turned the 
road to thick mud, up which vehicles struggled to travel. In places, 
streams ran across the road, making travel more difficult. Because the 
road is so mountainous, it was blocked in many places by landslides and 
falling boulders. These were not cleared until midday on 22 February, 
depriving the village of help for more than six hours after the quake.

Down the road, the village of Islamabad was also badly damaged by the 
earthquake, but was one of the first to be reached. Survivors there were 
given tents the same afternoon but were still waiting for blankets and 
food the following day. "All we've had today is a little tea. We have 
only had help from God," whispered an old woman whose voice was hoarse 
from screaming. "It is so cold. The children will fall ill."

She was standing in the courtyard of a ruined house down an alleyway 
where all the houses were destroyed. A green IRCS tent stood in the 
courtyard under a pomegranate tree. A glance inside the rooms flanking 
the courtyard revealed large chunks of plaster fallen to the floor and 
lying atop blankets and mattresses thrown aside by the sleeping 
occupants as they rushed for safety. Some rooms are completely 
demolished.

It was quickly obvious to rescue workers as they rushed to the area 
around Zerand, 75 km northeast of the provincial capital and the largest 
town in the quake zone, that the operation would be mainly one of 
relief. Iran's practised emergency services rushed large numbers of 
soldiers and IRCS volunteers into the area. By mid-morning, teams were 
working to sift through rubble in many of the villages. In Dahouyyeh, 
which was badly damaged, there was a functioning medical centre 
established within hours. Zerand itself suffered only minor damage in 
the quake.

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

Two large flights were chartered from the capital, Tehran, to bring 
supplies of tents, blankets and food to the stricken area on the 
afternoon of the quake. Other supplies were brought overland from Bam, 
where services still have large stockpiles of excess humanitarian aid 
left over from the earthquake there.

Some international aid groups also diverted from Bam when they heard 
news of the quake, including the United Nations Children's Fund 
(UNICEF), the World Health Organization (WHO), France's Medecins Sans 
Frontieres (MSF), the Czech-based People in Need and Switzerland's 
Medair.

"We got there a few hours after the quake and the immediate relief 
operation was very good," said Hani Mansourian, a UNICEF child 
protection officer from Bam, who had driven with the UNICEF team after 
receiving a call on the morning of the quake. "Hot food was being 
served, which was amazing. The army was there, helicopters were flying 
overhead. And all the people in charge had been working on the Bam 
earthquake too, so they were very experienced."

However, there was some confusion as the government launched a belated 
appeal for international help to provide some basic services such as 
latrines and other sanitation facilities after initially declining 
offers. The government has faced some internal criticism over its 
handling of the aftermath of Bam including the delays in developing a 
long-term reconstruction plan. And Iran has said it has not been 
provided with much of the aid and soft loans pledged by donor countries 
after that disaster.


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2005

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