India tends to quake survivors

WEB EXCLUSIVE Satinder Bindra: Quake damage widespread

State official: 125,000 'not accounted for'

In this story: Alarming fear in Bhuj Aftershock hits "Fleeing for our lives" Parents wait for news of loved ones RELATED STORIES, SITES

BHUJ, India -- Priorities for emergency workers and aid agencies are shifting from rescue efforts to helping survivors of the powerful earthquake in India, according to the Red Cross, while stories of dramatic rescues continue to come out of the devastated region.

Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, the top official in quake-stricken Gujarat state, said about 125,000 people were "not accounted for."

Authorities are predicting the death toll from Friday's devastating quake to rise above 15,000 while some aid agencies say the toll could be as high as 30,000.

Patrick Fuller, head of International Red Cross in India, told CNN's Nic Robertson in Bhuj that the death toll could already be as high as 20,000 and may reach 30,000 once more information is received from outlying areas.

Fuller said the priorities were now getting relief to the thousands if not hundreds of thousands who had been left homeless by the earthquake. He said the biggest needs at present were blankets, shelter, food and water.

"The situaiton in the outlying areas and villages is still very unclear and information about the level of destruction and the number of casualties is only now trickling in," he said.

"There appear to be plenty of doctors in place, but there is still a need for more medical supplies."

MESSAGE BOARD India quake    VIDEO CNN's Satinder Bindra reports on the medical treatment of quake survivors (January 28) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media) CNN's Satinder Bindra reports on rescue efforts to find quake survivors (January 27) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     RESOURCES When plates collide: a look at the causes of India's earthquake    MAGNITUDE GUIDE Below is an interactive guide to earthquake magnitude and severity: Magnitude: Less than 3.5 3.5 - 5.4 Under 6.0 6.1 - 6.9 7.0 - 7.9 8 or greater    GALLERY Images of devastation in India    AUDIO Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee considers government action and responses to the disaster 180K/32 sec. AIFF or WAV sound CNN's Satinder Bindra: Death rate increasing by the hour 180K/32 sec. AIFF or WAV sound India's Home Minister L K Advani on the known extent of damage 235K/42 sec. AIFF or WAV sound   ALSO India seeks $1.5bn from aid agencies Pakistan joins global relief effort Mumbai offers aid for quake victims

Rescue workers were mostly finding bodies under the piles of concrete and masonry in Bhuj in India's Gujarat state Sunday as panicked residents were shaken by another strong tremor.

But for one rescue team, 30 hours of digging resulted in the saving of two lives. Rescuers used an iron pole to punch a hole in the concrete on Sunday evening and eventually pulled Naina Badrasen Aur and her 18-month-old daughter, Namrata, out from underneath the debris.

An army engineers corp, among the 5,000 Indian soldiers deployed across Gujarat, rescued two men and a girl on Saturday afternoon after digging through the fallen masonry of their homes in Bhuj, said Capt. Amartej Singh.

The condition of the three people was not immediately known. It was not known if they were related.

Singh said his unit also recovered 10 bodies. But bolstered by their success in saving three lives, the soldiers started digging Sunday through another mountain of rubble where a resident said he could hear his brother's voice.

Rambhai Mulshankar, a 40-year-old goldsmith, led the soldiers to his fallen house. "I can even now hear my brother's cries for help," Mulshankar said.

CNN's Satinder Bindra witnessed a mood of alarming fear in Bhuj.

"Almost everyone in the town is camping outside. People just say they want to get out. This morning there was an aftershock that has frightened people again."

"I can see a building that is the hospital here in Buj, that entire building has come crashing down. There were possibly more than 1,000 people in the hospital here."

Surrounding towns have also been devastated. Some 50 high rises collapsed in nearby Ahmedabad.

The Indian Air Force is sending in 40 flights a day carrying food, tents and portable medical units. In spite of damage to the airport at Bhuj where an estimated 100 people died, the runway is still in operation. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has stated relief operations will be carried out on a warfooting.

About 2,500 bodies have been recovered so far. Though a few people had been pulled from rubble by civilians in the early hours after the quake, Saturday's find of survivors was the first by rescue workers digging through ruins.

The state's transport minister said the death toll would soar.

"It will be more than 10,000 in the Kutch district alone," Bimal Shah told The Associated Press, referring to the region near the Pakistan border where the quake was centered. "For the rest of the state it would be 2,000 or 3,000."

On Sunday, an aftershock of about 5.9 magnitude hit the area, centered about 12 miles from the center of Friday's quake, said V.K. Shukla, a seismologist at the government meteorology center in India's capital, New Delhi.

People rushed out of their homes as they were woken by the tremor around 6.45 a.m. in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, where more than 400 people died in Friday's quake. Homeless people sleeping in the open in biting cold also were jolted awake.

Another aftershock measuring 4.6 was also registered Sunday, according to The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India's premier atomic research center, which says it has recorded 257 tremors since Friday.

While thousands of rescuers clawed at the rubble, stunned survivors waited for authorities to distribute water, food or medicine. Others refused to eat, keeping a tearful vigil as emergency workers' drills bit into concrete in search of their buried loved ones.

"We have been walking since morning. We are fleeing for our lives," said Harjivan Vyas, 37, a factory worker in Bhuj town. "There is no drinking water, no food. All houses are destroyed."

Friday's quake struck on Republic Day, a national holiday. It shook the earth for more than 1,200 miles, but it hit hardest in Gujarat state, pulverizing cities and towns and bringing more than 100 multistory buildings down like houses of cards. In Ahmedabad alone, 40 to 50 high-rise buildings crumbled. Some 14,000 people, mostly suffering broken bones and cuts, jammed hospitals.

Ahmedabad residents wait for a crane in the hope of finding survivors

Among those buried were 350 children who had been taking part in a parade for Republic Day, which commemorates the adoption of India's constitution 51 years ago. They were marching through a Kutch street when several houses toppled onto them.

In the trading hub of Ahmedabad, a city of 4.5 million people, 15 high school students were trapped in their school, which collapsed soon after they arrived for a special class on their day off.

Of the 37 teenagers who had come for the class, six were rescued by civilians within hours. But the bodies of 16 were also pulled out, and a day later, the 15 other teenagers were still missing. Their parents kept a grim vigil as workers searched frantically and hope faded.

"Until Friday afternoon we could hear the cries of the children. Now we hear nothing," police inspector Ramesh Barot said.

As the rescuers labored on, mothers of the missing huddled under a makeshift tent Saturday while fathers waited alongside the police cordon surrounding the school.

"I want my son back. Why can't they do something?" wailed Nainabehn Patel, her eyes red and swollen. Her son, Bhowmik, 16, was somewhere under the rubble.

As hope faded, local residents began to point fingers: Local authorities hadn't checked shoddy construction in recent years, they said, and many were unavailable when the quake hit because of the holiday celebrations.

At almost all the collapsed buildings in Ahmedabad, local residents launched the rescue effort. "We private citizens have arranged for this single crane. We need at least another two cranes, but who will listen to us?" asked Ashok Patel, a bank manager.

Officials in Gujarat made urgent calls for food, medicine and up to 30,000 tents for people left homeless, and by Saturday aid began to pour in.

The Red Cross offered thousands of blankets, the Swiss government was sending sniffer dogs and assistance was also being accepted from the United States, Russia, Japan, Germany and Turkey. Norway and China had offered monetary aid, and Taiwan was prepared to send rescue workers.

With electrical distribution lines down in many areas, authorities set up generators to run the machines that clear the rubble and operate medical equipment. The government set up satellite phones for key relief work, and the Indian air force launched its biggest ever disaster relief operation, ferrying supplies and injured people in more than 40 transport aircraft.

"We will soon rebuild the flattened houses and resettle innumerable habitations which were wiped out by the quake," Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a speech.

The quake was the most powerful to strike India since Aug. 15, 1950, when an 8.5-magnitude temblor killed 1,538 people in northeastern Assam state.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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U.S. Geological Survey
UNICEF relief efforts
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CARE
American Red Cross

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