
A
picture taken on November 14, 2017 shows a view of the buildings left
damaged by a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that struck two days before in the
town of Sarpol-e Zahab in Iran’s western Kermanshah province near the
border with Iraq, leaving hundreds killed and thousands homeless. / AFP
PHOTO / ATTA KENARE
Iranian authorities scrambled on Tuesday to
bring help to thousands of people left homeless by a major quake that
killed more than 400 people.
As the country marked a day of mourning, President Hassan Rouhani
promised swift help following the 7.3-magnitude quake that struck a
mountainous region spanning the Iran-Iraq border late Sunday.
Volunteers also rushed to help the displaced after thousands of homes
were destroyed in the quake, which rocked a region extending across
Iran’s western province of Kermanshah and neighbouring Iraqi Kurdistan.
On Tuesday afternoon, the damage was visible in the town of Sar-e Pol-e Zahab, Iran’s worst hit in the quake.
Residents helped police to evacuate an elderly man from a home at
risk of imminent collapse. His face was covered in caked blood and his
hand was bandaged.
Several buildings and houses lay in complete ruins, while others
stood disfigured after their facades had collapsed. But other structures
appeared unscathed.
A team of rescue workers with sniffer dogs combed the ruins for
survivors after at least 280 people were killed in the town of some
85,000.
The town centre was clogged with traffic as people from the
surrounding province rushed to help with rescue efforts. Some
distributed blankets and others handed out water.
Tents, some provided by the Red Crescent, dotted green spaces turned
into camps for the displaced. But some did not have shelter from the
cold.
“What we need is a tent and covers to be able to get through the
night,” said Shima Maryami Kiani, 24, the mother of a three-year-old.
15,500 homes destroyed
Earlier in the day, residents who had fled their homes awoke from a
second night in the chilly outdoors as authorities struggled to get aid
into the quake zone.
Rouhani was expected to speak with local officials to evaluate the
situation, after landing by helicopter in the city of Kermanshah where
he promised the government would move swiftly to help those left
homeless.
“I want to assure those who are suffering that the government has
begun to act with all means at its disposal and is scrambling to resolve
this problem as quickly as possible,” he said.
Rouhani said all aid would be channelled through the Housing
Foundation, one of the charitable trusts set up after the Islamic
revolution of 1979 that are major players in the Iranian economy.
Pir Hossein Koolivand, the head of national rescue services, earlier
said the priority was “to provide solutions for heating, housing and
food”.
The head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Major General Mohammad
Ali Jafari, said the immediate need was for tents, water and food.
“Newly constructed buildings… held up well, but the old houses built
with earth were totally destroyed,” he told state television as he
visited the affected region.
As winter sets in, around 15,500 Iranian homes have been destroyed
and another 15,000 damaged in the quake, according to official
estimates.
Seven towns and nearly 2,000 villages were damaged, authorities said, and several villages were completely wiped from the map.
The human toll in Iran stood at 432 dead and 7,460 injured, while
across the border in more sparsely populated areas of Iraq, the health
ministry said eight people had died and several hundred were injured.
Iraq’s Red Crescent put the toll at nine dead.
Day of mourning
On Tuesday, Iran marked a day of mourning, with a black banner adorning
the corner of images of the disaster broadcast by state television to
the tune of “Sad Lisa” by British singer Yusuf Islam, formerly known as
Cat Stevens.
To show solidarity with the Kurdish-majority province hit by the
quake, a state newspaper printed a headline in Kurdish, which read “Iran
cries with Kermanshah”.
Ali Daei, a legend of Iranian football and former national team coach, launched an initiative to gather food and basic supplies.
A Tehran cinema said it would donate half of its receipts to relief
efforts, and the capital’s two football teams said they were sending
hundreds of tents and blankets to affected areas.
The Tabnak agency offered a little hope, with the report that a girl
named Avna was born in one of the devastated region’s three hospitals.
On Monday, Iranian officials said they were setting up relief camps
for the displaced and that 22,000 tents, 52,000 blankets and tonnes of
food and water had been distributed.
Iran sees frequent seismic activity.
In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake in northern Iran killed 40,000 people,
injured 300,000 and left half a million homeless, reducing dozens of
towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.
Thirteen years later, a catastrophic quake flattened swathes of the
ancient southeastern Iranian city of Bam, killing at least 31,000.
Iran has experienced at least two major quake disasters since — one
in 2005 that killed more than 600 people and another in 2012 that left
some 300 dead.