Iran Villagers Shelter In Tents After Killer Quake

DISASTER MANAGEMENT

An Iranian woman walks past destroyed houses in Qeshm Island, southern Iran, 28 November 2005. Several thousand Iranians spent the night in tents without electricity after their villages were hit by a powerful earthquake on an island off the southern coast that left 10 people dead. Rescue workers were today ferrying the injured to hospitals and providing tents, blankets and food to survivors of the quake which struck the Gulf island of Qeshm on Sunday with a force of about 6.0 on the Richter scale. AFP photo.

by Farhad Pouladi
Tehran (AFP) Nov 28, 2005
Iranian rescue workers handed out blankets, food and water Monday to survivors of a powerful earthquake on a Gulf island that killed 10 people and forced villagers to spend the night in tents.

Power was restored to the afflicted villages on the Gulf island of Qeshm after a blackout caused by the quake, which struck on Sunday with a force of about 6.0 on the Richter scale.

"We have distributed the needed tents, blankets, fresh water and food to survivors," the governor-general of Hormouzgan province, Abdolreza Sheikholeslami, told state television.

He said 30 of the 80 wounded remained in hospital after the tremor, which destroyed or damaged an estimated 1,500 mudbrick houses in about 15 villages on the island and was felt across the Gulf in the United Arab Emirates.

"Most of the buildings in the villages are not safe to live in any more. However, by nightfall all those who need tents will be provided with one," the head of the provincial natural disaster service, Massoud Dalman, told the television.

Qeshm island governor Heydar Alishbandi told AFP that a total of 10 people had been killed and that the death toll was not expected to rise further.

"Around 1,000 people are housed temporarily in tents and another 2,000 are waiting to be housed," he said, adding that the weather was warm with temperatures of about 28 degrees Celsius (82 degrees Fahrenheit).

"We are not facing shortages and the relief operations are going smoothly."

Some panicked residents of the island, which is situated off the coast from the large port city of Bandar Abbas and is home to about 100,000 people, slept outside after a second quake jolted the area several hours later.

The rocky and barren island was hit almost two years after the southeastern city of Bam -- situated 300 kilometers (190 miles) to the north -- was destroyed in a quake that killed tens of thousands of people.

State news agency IRNA quoted the head of Qeshm's free-trade zone, Ali Rezapour, as saying the quake caused damage estimated at around 54 million dollars, with 50 schools and about 1,500 houses rendered unsafe.

Qeshm, located 1,150 kilometers (700 miles) southeast of Tehran, has a busy commercial and fishing port and is also a popular weekend sunshine getaway for Iranian tourists.

Airport chief Ali Naghavi was quoted by IRNA as saying that operations had resumed after being halted on Sunday.

The island's main town, also called Qeshm, was undamaged. The most affected villages were identified as Gabardin, Tonban, Karvan, Tourian and Khaldin -- all situated in the less densely populated west of the island.

Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes.

In February, a quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale hit the southern town of Zarand, killing 612 people and wounding around 1,400.

In December 2003, the southeastern city of Bam was razed by a 6.7 degree quake that left more than 31,000 people dead.

Mehdi Zareh, the head of Iran's Seismic Research Center, said there was no tsunami risk from the latest quake.

"Because the Persian Gulf is not very deep, a tsunami is not expected," he told the student news agency ISNA.

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TECTONICS

Rescuers Rush To China Quake Scene

Jiujiang, China (AFP) Nov 27, 2005
Rescue teams rushed Sunday to a popular tourist spot in eastern China after a powerful earthquake killed at least 13 people in the region and left hundreds of others injured, officials said.

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