Guest guest Posted February 2, 2001 Report Share Posted February 2, 2001 Please read the painful account below. It underscores that our task is not done, it has just started. Vishal > Shyam Parekh > 29 January, 2001 3:57 PM > URGENT:Gujarat Earthquake > > Dear All, > I am Shyam Parekh, Senior News Correspondent with the Times of > India, Ahmedabad, (Gujarat) India, specialisaing in environment. I > am writing this with an express purpose to update you all about the > situation here and seek your help - information wise. As you all > must have known, my state has been ravaged by an earthquake which > measured 7.9 on the Richter scale and was the biggest since the one > we had experienced in 1819. There have been as many as 200 tremors > since the quake hit us, stunning everyone of us. > A day after the quake I managed to reach to a place called Bhachau > which is a taluka (a district division) headquarter. I could not > believe my eyes that while all the government aid, international > rescue teams, armed forces, international media and TV personnel > focused on the district headquarter called Bhuj (the district is > called Kutchh) there was absolutely no aid, > I repeat there was > absolutely no help from outside the town here after 35 hours of the > devastation. > As a result some 10,000 residents of this town which had a > population of 35,000 have perished from what I estimate and what the > surviving locals told me. There 'were' 72 smaller towns and villages > around Bhachau with a population of 1.5 to two lakhs (0.2 > million). All these villages have perished, repeat they have > perished. Not a single man-made structure has survived the quake. As > entire villages and towns have disappeared under debris and the > administrative people from the village too have gone underneath > nobody is there tell what is the real damage. > Though the government has not accepted the death-toll in Kutchh > district alone will cross one lakh or more. I am talking about only > one taluka called Bhachau, which is the worst hit. There are > dozens more around it and nobody knows what is the situation the re > as the state government, the Centre and the administration have > focussed on the city of Bhuj, which had a population of nearly 2.5 > lakhs [250,000] and where nearly 20,000 have died. > I request you all to spread the word that the devastation is > complete here, many many more time than what is seen on the TV or > read in the newspapers. > So if your countries/ organisation are sending rescue teams and aid > please ask them to focus more on places from where there are no > reports. Just look at the map and find out Kutchh distcit in the > Westernmost tip of India and things will be clear. > If teams are coming here ask them to go fully equipped for > themselves with > food, water etc. There are decaying corpse > everywhere and no rescue work is needed. Lots of medical attention > including psychological treatment will be necessary, as those who > survived and seen their relatives getting buried and tortured > under rubble for 36 hours before they died have become quite > strange. > I will request one more help from you all, its please send me as > much information on earth-quake as much you can, particularly about > seismic activity in this region as we have only very sketchy > information. > We would like details about possibility of recurrences, how to > repair the buildings multi-storeyed in Ahmedabad which have > developed cracks and faults as about two million people in Ahmedabad > alone and some five million in Gujarat, are on roads as they are not > allowed to stay in shattered buildings. > Please let me know very URGENTLY about the repairing and restucturing of > buildings to make them livable. > > My contact: > Shyam Parekh, > Senior News Correspondent, > The Times of India, > AHMEDABAD. > Phone: 91-79-6585778 / 6582151-5 / 6582886 > Fax: 91-79-6583758 > e-mail: shyam_parekh > Cellular: 98250-22968 _______________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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