Severe weather

Citation

(2007), "Severe weather", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 16 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2007.07316eac.003

Severe weather

17 February 2006Philippines

Hundreds of people were feared dead in the central Philippines after mudslides triggered by heavy rains buried houses and an elementary school packed with children today, officials and witnesses said. Footage from local television showed wide areas of the remote farming village of Guinsaugon, near Saint Bernard town in Southern Leyte Province, covered in reddish mud, with only the tops of coconut trees and a few tin roofs sticking out. Blocked roads, washed-out bridges, cut communications lines and lack of heavy equipment were hindering rescuers. “Our estimate is about 2,500 people were buried”, said Colonel Raul Farnacio, in charge of the military’s relief operations. He said 16 bodies had been recovered in Guinsaugon, a community of 3,000 to 4,000 at the foot of a mountain where a minor earthquake was reported this morning. There were unconfirmed reports at least 200 villagers could be dead and about 1,500 missing, said Senator Richard Gordon, who also heads the Philippine Red Cross. “Help is on the way”, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on television, adding that Navy and Coast Guard vessels were proceeding to the remote coastal area. Congressman Roger Mercado said residents had been advised to leave the village after weeks of heavy rain but he laid some of the blame on mining and logging in the area three decades ago. Sixteen people were killed earlier this week when heavy rains and flash floods hit Southeastern provinces.

19 February 2006

Workers have failed to find any more survivors of a mudslide in the central Philippines and fear 1,800 people died. The landslide hit Guinsaugon village in the town of St Bernard on the island of Leyte on Friday (February 17). A school with 200 pupils was amongst buildings to be crushed by mud after ten days of heavy rain pounded the area. Only a few dozen people were pulled out of the mud alive. Another 11 villages in the area have now been evacuated in case another landslide hits the area. Government experts said that a mild earthquake had hit the area on Friday and may have contributed to the landslide. Some have suggested illegal logging has removed forests from the area and left it more vulnerable to floods and landslides. Search efforts were made more difficult by blocked roads, collapsed bridges and the fear of setting off another landslide with diggers. Helicopters and a dog rescue team were sent from Manila to help with rescue efforts. A United Nations team is now on the way to assess the damage.

19 February 2006

At least ten people were missing and feared dead in a landslide last night near a mining headquarters in the province of Zamboanga del Sur in Southern Philippines, reported today. A report from the Armed Forces Southern Command as saying that the incident occurred at around 1120 GMT in Sitio Balabag, Barangay Depore in the town of Bayog. The landslide comes after a devastating mountain cave-in buried a village in Southern Leyte on Friday, possibly killing an estimated 1,400 people. The report said the landslide site was about 500 meters from the headquarters of Toronto Ventures Incorporated mining corporation. Two houses were buried by mudflows brought about by the heavy downpours that have been experienced across the region for the past days. Authorities have yet to identify the victims and owners of the two houses that were buried by mudflows. Troops from the Philippine army and police are conducting search and rescue operations in the area.

20 February 2006

Aid from many countries has been offered for a Philippines village buried under a landslide on Friday (February 17) but hopes of finding survivors are dim. A total of 68 people have been confirmed dead and 1,800 remain missing from the village of Guinsaugon on Leyte Island. Australia and China have pledged thousands of dollars in aid and US marines are helping dig at the site. Efforts to find survivors are focusing on the buried village’s school, a Filipino military officer said. However, he added: “The exact location of the school cannot be found because the landslide pushed everything away”. Dozens of US marines arrived at the site of Guinsaugon today to lend a hand with the rescue effort. The men were given shovels to dig through layers of rock and mud, amid fears that using heavier digging equipment could further destabilise the mud, reports stated. Rescue workers have been advised to tread carefully in the soft mud or risk drowning. Captain Roman Dioso, an Air Force officer heading a team of rescue workers, said heavy earth-moving equipment would be deployed tomorrow to excavate the centre of the site. “But”, he said, “this is one of the most dangerous areas. Every time it rains, the mountain rumbles and we have to run to safety”. The US has put two naval vessels and 17 helicopters on stand-by to help the rescue effort. Australia has offered more than $700,000 and China about $1m to provide shelter and relief to survivors. Local officials say the focus is now on recovering bodies and aiding survivors, of whom none have been found since Friday. Officials said the mudslide happened after about 200 cm of rain fell in the area in the space of ten days. Correspondents say the area lies in the path of several typhoons each year, and that coconut trees – which are common locally – have shallow roots which leave the soil vulnerable to landslides.

Hunting for bodies and burying the dead resumed in the central Philippines today, with rescuers holding out little hope for survivors in a village of 1,800 buried by a collapsed mountainside. The National Disaster Co-ordinating Council said 72 bodies had been recovered, with 1,350 villagers still missing. Battling deep, shifting mud and steady rain, search teams continued to focus on a school packed with more than 250 children and staff when Friday’s (February 17) landslide engulfed Guinsaugon, a farming community in Southern Leyte province. “They can see the roof but so far there is no sign of life”, Congressman Roger Mercado said today. Reports that some survivors sent desperate mobile phone text messages on Friday had spurred on the search. There were fresh glimmers of hope yesterday and today when sensing equipment detected sounds from the school, but even then rescuers could not be sure about what they heard. “The signs of movement may be falling rock or running water”, said Colonel Raul Farnacio, in charge of the army’s operations. A three-year-old girl, among the first to be saved on Friday, died in hospital from injuries, television station ANC said. Fifty recovered bodies were buried yesterday in mass graves sprinkled with holy water and lime powder – a measure Health Secretary Francisco Duque said was necessary to prevent disease from spreading in the hot, fetid conditions. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo viewed relief goods and dog teams being flown from a military airbase in Manila today. She plans to visit the scene of the disaster, about 675 km (420 miles) Southeast of Manila, on Wednesday or Thursday. International agencies have also sent supplies, but many of the emergency goods must be trucked to the area on bad roads and around washed-out bridges. Although the president had pledged to recover all of the bodies for burial, Mercado said a decision was likely within days about closing off the devastated area. Around 2,000 people from villages near Guinsaugon were evacuated over the weekend as Defence Secretary Avelino Cruz warned of more potential catastrophes because rains triggered by the La Nina weather pattern were expected to last until June. A village in the Southeastern province of Davao Oriental was evacuated today after five people were killed in a landslide in the Northwestern part of Mindanao Island on Saturday. In Guinsaugon, hundreds of rescuers, backed by US marines sent from annual exercises with Philippine troops, were warned to tread gingerly or risk sinking.

21 February 2006

Rescue workers battled through sludge and rubble today, buoyed by scratching noises and sounds picked up near where a packed elementary school was buried under metres of mud in a deadly Philippine landslide. So far, 85 bodies have been recovered and relatives have reported 1,371 people still missing. Rescuers, including US Marines dispatched from annual Philippine military exercises, have focused efforts on the school after unconfirmed reports that some of the 253 people trapped inside had sent desperate text messages on Friday (February 17). Late yesterday, seismic equipment picked up scratching noises and rhythmic sounds close to the school. Provincial governor Rosette Lerias refused to give up hope. “We see increasing positive signs to continue”. Rescue conditions are treacherous. Emergency workers from Taiwan, Spain and Malaysia, along with Philippine soldiers and miners, have had to contend with deep, shifting mud which threatens to swallow them in places. Soldiers are starting to pave a path for more accessibility.

25 February 2006

The search for survivors from a deadly Philippine mudslide was called off as rescue workers gave up hope for nearly 1,000 people buried under a huge crust of earth and debris, a senior official said today. Southern Leyte province Governor Rosette Lerias said 139 bodies had been retrieved since the February 17 landslide obliterated the remote farming community of Guinsaugon, about 675 km Southeast of Manila. However, there was now no hope of finding anyone alive among the 973 still missing under the mud, which was up to 40 metres deep in some places, and rescuers had switched their work to retrieving bodies. “We’ve moving on now to search and retrieval and rehabilitation and relocation of the survivors”, Lerias said. “We will try to retrieve as many for as long as the conditions do not pose a health hazard to our rescuers”. Rescuers, including US Marines dispatched from annual Philippine military exercises, had focused their efforts on an elementary school under the mud after unconfirmed reports that some of those trapped inside had sent desperate text messages. Earlier this week, seismic equipment had picked up scratching noises and rhythmic sounds close to the school, but no new noise had been detected since Monday (Febraury 20). Lerias said some international rescue teams had decided to abandon their search after heavy rain yesterday brought near-flooding conditions. “The Spanish started to leave even before yesterday. The conditions are not good for their dogs because it has been raining hard”, she said. “Taiwan is leaving this afternoon, Malaysia is leaving tomorrow”. She said an Indonesian team would stay on for one month as a medical mission, while US forces were still helping with the relocation of around 400 who escaped the deluge and many others who were evacuated from nearby villages.

22 February 2006Indonesia

Landslides and floods triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 24 people in Indonesia’s Eastern city of Manado, search and rescue officials said today. The disaster occurred yesterday in the North Sulawesi provincial capital, where parts of the city were inundated with one-metre high floodwaters after hours of rain. Most of the dead were buried by mud from landslides in hilly parts of the city. “Today we found four bodies so the total is now 24”, said Rinaldi, a search and rescue official in Manado, about 2,200 km Northeast of Jakarta. Another search and rescue official on the scene in the seaside city said rescuers were still searching for survivors.

10 March 2006India

Lightning killed 11 people and injured eight in the past 24 hours in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, hit by unseasonal rain and hailstorms, officials said today. The latest deaths, including a ten-year-old girl, brought the death toll due to bad weather to at least 35 since March 1. More than 100 people have been injured and thousands of hectares of mustard, lentil and wheat crop damaged. “As per preliminary reports, 720 villages in 30 districts have been affected by the un-seasonal rains and hailstorms, and crops in 31,850 hectares of land have been lost”, the state’s Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, said. Six policemen were hurt when strong winds uprooted their tents and they were pelted by hail in western Madhya Pradesh overnight. Scores of trees have been ripped out by strong winds. Rain and hailstorms have lashed India’s key wheat-growing regions for the past two days and traders fear it may hit the country’s output of grain.

27 March 2006Colombia

Floods in Colombia have killed 32 people and injured 30 others in five provinces, leaving hundreds of people homeless, the chief of the government’s disaster prevention office said Friday (March 24). The floods, which have lasted several days, hit the provinces of Antioquia, Tolima, Risaralda, Caldas and Narino, Eduardo Jose Gonzalez told reporters. In Pereira, capital of the Eastern province of Risaralda, three homes were washed away by floods, and the main road to Armenia, capital of Quindio province, was made impassable. Rescue services declared a state of alert on Thursday in Manizales, capital of Caldas Department. In Bogota, the Aqueduct Company started an operation to clean rivers to reduce the congestion caused by the heavy rain. The nation’s Hydrology and Meteorology Agency said that heavy rain would continue in the Andean, Pacific, Eastern Llanos and Amazon regions.

3 April 2006USA

Fierce storms packing high winds and twisters tore through the Midwest and South on Sunday (April 2), killing 14 people, including 11 in Northwestern Tennessee. Eight people were killed West and North of the Dyer County town of Newbern, according to Tennessee Emergency Management spokesman Kurt Pickering. “Numerous homes” were destroyed amid widespread property damage when a tornado swept through the area on Sunday night, he said. Three other people died in nearby Gibson County, Pickering said. The high winds and twisters rumbled through Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and Illinois, as well as Tennessee. There were three other deaths. Straight-line winds, not a twister, toppled a mobile home in Essex, Missouri, killing 42-year-old man, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said. In Fairview Heights, Illinois, a man was killed when high winds flattened a clothing store, police said. That city is near St Louis, Missouri. A man was killed when a tree fell on him during a heavy storm near Ballwin in St Louis County, Missouri, county police said. In Carutherville, Missouri, heavy damage to homes and businesses has been reported, but no deaths. Several people have been rescued after being trapped in their homes but others were still trapped early today, according to a dispatcher with the Pemiscot County Sheriff’s Department. The town’s power was out and officials expected it would not be restored for several days, he said. Tornadoes left heavy damage along a path that began in Northeast Arkansas and continued into Southeast Missouri and Northwest Tennessee. Emergency officials sealed off Marmaduke, Arkansas, on Sunday evening as they worked to cope with tornado damage that the National Weather Service described as heavy. In the Southwest Kentucky city of Hopkinsville, “numerous homes” were destroyed, power lines were down and gas lines had erupted, the National Weather Service said. A tornado touched down in Lewisburg, Kentucky, overturning cars and damaging buildings and homes, the weather service said. Tornadoes in at least seven counties across central Illinois Sunday evening caused heavy damage in some communities, but no serious injuries or deaths have been reported, according to emergency officials and the National Weather Service. A long front of severe weather stretched “pretty much from North to South” in Illinois, although the most powerful cell appeared to follow an eastward path along Interstate 72, according to Illinois Emergency Management spokeswoman Patti Thompson. The town of Taylorville in Christian County, Illinois, received significant damage to dozens of homes and businesses. The National Weather Service also reported tornado touchdowns in the Illinois counties of Champaign, McLean, Macon, Piatt, Sangamon and Kankakee. Initial damage reports in those counties were limited to utility poles and trees down, in addition to roof damage.

3 April 2006

Thunderstorms, packing tornadoes and hail as big as softballs, ripped through eight states, killing at least 27 people, injuring scores and destroying hundreds of homes in the South and Midwest. Tennessee was hit hardest, with tornadoes striking five Western counties, yesterday, and killing 23 people. Most of the deaths were along a 40-kilometre path stretching from Newbern, about 130 km Northeast of Memphis, to Bradford, officials said. The Highway Patrol sent teams with search dogs to the area Monday to check what remained of the homes and businesses for anyone who might be trapped in the rubble. Betty Sisk and her son and daughter took cover in a closet until a twister blew their house apart and threw them into the yard. Nothing remained of Sisk’s wood-frame home today but the concrete steps. A nearby house was destroyed and Sisk said she had been told the elderly couple who lived there were dead. Another neighbour’s home was blown about nine metres off its foundation. Severe thunderstorms, many producing tornadoes, also struck parts of Iowa, Kentucky, Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and Indiana. Strong wind was blamed for at least three deaths in Missouri. A clothing store collapsed in Southern Illinois, killing one man. The weather service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said it had preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes. Among the dead in Tennessee was a baby, one of 15 people killed in Dyer County. Eight died in Gibson county and four others were hospitalized in a critical condition today. Tennessee officials estimated 1,200 buildings were damaged in Gibson County alone. Newbern alderman Robert Hart said witnesses described the tornado that hit his town as being “almost a mile wide”. About six tornadoes struck Arkansas and one destroyed nearly half of the town of Marmaduke, according to a fire department official. “Almost every single structure in Marmaduke has minor to moderate damage but almost 50 per cent of it is totally destroyed”, Franks said. Hail ten centimetres in diameter slammed through the roof of one mobile home in Arkansas, weather service meteorologist Newton Skiles said. About 50 km from Newbern, a tornado caused extensive damage to the Southeast Missouri city of Caruthersville. Kentucky county declared a state of emergency early today as rescue workers struggled to get to rural areas, where roads were blocked by power lines and trees. There were no immediate reports of tornadoes in Ohio, but the state was ripped by high wind.

6 April 2006

Floodwaters receded and the Red River crested, but many property owners were still struggling with swelling tributaries and overland flooding that covered roads. Melting snow and heavy rain pushed the Red River above its banks this spring, leaving farm land under water and causing anxiety along the river that serves as the state line between Minnesota and North Dakota. The river began cresting in Fargo at just over 37 feet Tuesday (April 4), two feet shy of the 1997 flood, the city’s worst in a century. It was projected to crest Thursday at 48 feet in Grand Forks, 20 feet above flood stage but well below the top of a new levee there. At least two houses in Fargo and one house in nearby Moorhead were lost to flooding this week, officials said. Water from the Sheyenne River was three to four inches deep on some parts of Interstate 29 between Fargo and Harwood, but the highway remained open. National Weather Service officials said the high water was expected to continue into next week, when the Red River was projected to drop below 30 feet, considered major flood stage in Fargo, by Tuesday. Cass County emergency manager Dave Rogness estimated flood damage to roads and bridges in the county could total more than $1 million. In Minnesota, the Red and Wild Rice rivers crept toward flood crests near Hendrum. The Wild Rice River reached 32.38 feet at noon yesterday and was expected to crest at 32.6 feet this morning.

7 April 2006

Winter rains and flooding have caused at least $259 million in damage to California roads and highways over the past six months, transportation officials said. Mudslides, sinkholes and washouts have damaged nearly 450 locations on state highways, and rains in March caused more than $70 million in damage, David Anderson, a spokesman for the California Department of Transportation, said yesterday.

8 April 2006

Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms struck Tennessee yesterday afternoon, killing at least seven people, peeling away roofs and flipping cars over, officials said. All seven deaths were in Sumner County, Northeast of Nashville, said Eddie Boatwright, spokesman for the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. Fire Chief Joe Womack said three bodies were pulled from the wreckage of homes in a subdivision of Gallatin, about 24 miles northeast of Nashville. Tornadoes were also reported in the Nashville suburbs of Goodlettsville, Hendersonville and Ashland City, and in Holladay, about 90 miles west of Nashville. The storms flattened trees, knocked down power lines and damaged homes and other buildings. At least seven people injured in the storm were being treated at Hendersonville Medical Center yesterday afternoon, spokeswoman Marissa Murphy said. The hospital was operating on emergency power because its regular electric service was knocked out. At Volunteer State Community College in the Nashville suburb of Gallatin, several people suffered cuts and scratches, spokesman Eric Melcher said. Two campus buildings were severely damaged, Melcher said. Three car dealerships near the college were devastated, with 250 cars totalled.

9 April 2006

Tennessee’s Cumberland County Emergency Management Director Keith Garrison said today that there were indeed two tornadoes that hit Cumberland County Friday (April 7) night. He estimated damaged caused by the tornadoes is approximately $3.2 million as of today. This figure excludes hail damage and damage to public roads and public utilities. He added that the number of county homes damages by the storm now totals more than 200. Power has been restored to all 3,500 customers in Cumberland County today with the exception of a few isolated pockets. Tornadoes were spotted in about ten Tennessee counties on Friday, the second wave of deadly storms to hit the state in less than a week, weather officials said. The worst damage appeared to be in Gallatin and other suburbs Northeast of Nashville. Later Friday and early yesterday, another line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Alabama and Georgia. Homes and businesses were damaged in the Atlanta suburbs, but the National Weather Service had not confirmed whether the area was hit by tornadoes. Several people were injured in Alabama, two by falling trees, but no deaths were reported, officials said Saturday. A store was destroyed in Ohatchee, near Anniston, and homes and apartments were damaged in the Birmingham area. Storms also pounded Southern West Virginia, blacking out more than 16,000 customers, utilities said.

10 April 2006

At least four tornadoes touched down in Georgia on Saturday (April 8), damaging about 250 structures and toppling trees. The storms later moved into coastal Georgia, delaying the Masters golf tournament in Augusta for about four hours, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The storms at one point knocked out power to more than 50,000 people, but Georgia Power Co. expected to have everyone’s power restored by midnight. State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine estimated damage in the tens of millions of dollars.

10 April 2006

California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency today in seven Northern and Central California counties, saying the region’s rainiest March on record and more rain on the horizon put people and property in “extreme peril”. Many reservoirs in California’s Central Valley are at full capacity, and at least ten more days of rain are forecast for the region. Levee repairs are typically done in the summer, when water behind them is at its low point, but state water officials fear the heavy rain could weaken some levees to the point of failure. They took advantage of a weekend lull in the storms to patch some weak spots in the system but were still concerned. Schwarzenegger had already declared a state of emergency for California’s levee system in February, a step that freed up about $103 million for repairs to 24 flood-prone sites. His new declaration today did not specify an amount of aid but directed “all agencies of the state” to dispatch staff, equipment and facilities. In the declaration, Schwarzenegger wrote that “extreme peril to the safety of persons and property” afflicted the counties of Amador, Calaveras, Fresno, Merced, San Joaquin, San Mateo and Stanislaus. The levee work yesterday had included reinforcing levees, building a berm and adding rocks to protect a river bank from eroding in San Joaquin County near the confluence of the San Joaquin and Stanislaus rivers. In Fresno County, crews worked on raising a levee that protects the town of Firebaugh, population 7,000.

11 April 2006

The Emergency Management Agency Cheatham County in Tennessee is estimating the damage to the county at about $1 million in the wake of Friday’s (April 7) storms. Edwin Hogan, the agency’s director, said yesterday that figure is a “conservative” estimate and that officials were in the process of breaking it down between residential and commercial structures. Local officials were also awaiting word yesterday from the federal government as to whether the area would be declared a disaster area. Ashland City and the Greenbrier community were the hardest hit after an F1 tornado made its way through Cheatham County.

11 April 2006

As state and federal teams assess damage from last week’s severe storms, losses from earlier storms and tornadoes are becoming clear. The first round of severe weather in 2006 killed ten and damaged thousands of buildings in Missouri. Insured losses from the storms, which dropped dozens of tornadoes in mid-March, add up to more than $394 million. The Missouri Department of Insurance asked the 25 insurance companies with the most clients in the state to estimate their insured losses. With only one company, which has less than 1 per cent of the marketplace, left to report, the storms prompted 100,963 claims and an average loss per claim of $3,903, the agency said. More than 61,000 claims for vehicles totalled $135 million in damages, while the 40,000 homeowners’ claims totalled $259 million. The most recent storms, which killed 28 people in several states, hit the hardest in Pemiscot County and its county seat, Caruthersville. Officials from the State Emergency Management Agency report that building inspections in the Bootheel city found 112 structures were destroyed, 239 are uninhabitable and 247 were only partially habitable. An additional 358 buildings were cleared. Thus far, only 50 rental units have been identified in the area. And state and federal emergency officials plan to use the Army Corps of Engineers to provide $5 million worth of temporary dwellings. Federal officials estimate it will take at least two more days before its building inspections can begin. Disaster assessments from the latest storms are continuing, with inspectors finding damage to 450 homes and 42 businesses in St Francois County and nine homes and four businesses in St Louis County.

4 April 2006Yemen

Floods caused by torrential rains in Yemen have killed at least 14 people and injured over 20 others over the last two days, government officials said on Tuesday. The fatalities include three young brothers who were killed when floods swept a huge rock over their house in Dhamar governorate, about 100 km south of the capital Sanaa, the officials said. Floods destroyed dozens of houses, agricultural land and livestock in other provinces in Yemen, which is witnessing seasonal heavy rains.

31 March 2006Iran

A strong earthquake followed by several aftershocks jolted Western Iran early today, killing at least 17 and injuring hundreds, state media reported. The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 5.0 and was centred near Boroujerd and Doroud, two industrial cities in Western Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The quake was followed by two weaker aftershocks, but a third tremor had a magnitude of 6.0, and hit Doroud and surrounding villages at shortly before 0500 hours local time today, IRNA reported.

31 March 2006

A strong earthquake hit a remote part of Western Iran today, killing about 50 people and devastating villages, a senior provincial official said. About 800 people were also injured, according to Mohammad Reza Mohseni-Sani, Governor of Lorestan Province, which contains the quake-hit Doroud and Boroujerd area, state radio reported. It said local hospitals were at full stretch. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered emergency relief to be sent to the quake zone, the official IRNA news agency reported. Iranian television showed brick houses flattened, with bent iron girders poking out, and mud buildings reduced to mounds of dust. An earthmover lifted broken masonry from one building, while residents scrabbled through rubble with their bare hands. Ali Barani, head of the disaster control committee in the Lorestan Governor’s office, said by telephone earlier that some 330 villages in the area were damaged by between 30 and 100 per cent from the quake of magnitude 6.0. He said tremors last night might have helped keep the death toll down because many villagers had left their homes and taken to the streets well before the main jolt struck. Many residents fled their homes and set up tents outside for the night after feeling the initial shocks measuring 4.7 and 5.1 on the Richter scale, IRNA reported. The governor of the city of Doroud, Nasrollah Rashno, said telephone lines, electricity and gas supplies had been cut in some areas by the initial quakes, IRNA said. In Geneva, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, using information from the Iranian Red Crescent, said 50 people had been killed and 850 injured. Some 330 villages had been destroyed between 30 and 70 per cent, while an unknown number of other villages had been totally destroyed, Federation spokeswoman Marie-Francoise Borel said. “Rescue teams have been mobilised”, she added.

1 April 2006

UN experts were rushing to Western Iran to assess damage caused by the powerful earthquake that killed at least 70 people and may have left thousands homeless. Another 1,265 people were injured in the quake that struck the province of Lorestan with a force of 6.0 on the Richter scale before dawn yesterday, Lorestan provincial governor Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani was quoted as saying on state television. The Brujerd area was hit hardest. The earthquake left at least 45 people dead there and another 1,025 people injured. “The successive aftershocks are still keeping the people in the streets. The search and rescue is going on, and people are waiting to receive their tents, blankets, and food”, an AFP photographer in Brujerd area said. Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi told state news agency IRNA that he did not expect any major rise in the number of the casualties. The tremor struck at 0447 hours local time, following two others measuring 4.7 and 5.1, Iranian television quoted the National Seismological Institute as saying. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Iranian Red Crescent has sent 100 rescue teams, or a total of around 300 people, to the affected areas.