Relief operations struggle in tornado-hit India

Makeshift surgery in China quake zone
Qingshuihe, China (AFP) April 15, 2010 - Tsering Dorje didn't have the luxury of going to hospital to have his right arm amputated. Instead a doctor performed the operation in a tent hastily erected after China's deadly quake. "Most of the hospitals had collapsed and others had become dangerous," Karma Sherab, who performed the hour-long procedure, told the official Xinhua agency. "The only thing we can do is to clean the wounds in a simple way or simply amputate instead of curing." Dorje's wife tearfully explained how her 55-year-old husband was trapped when the building he was in collapsed after Wednesday's 6.9-magnitude quake struck. His son held his hand, and said he feared his father would die.

While doctors worked in the makeshift hospitals, rescuers using shovels, iron bars and their bare hands frantically clawed their way through huge piles of rubble and jagged concrete slabs hunting for survivors. The high altitude of the remote mountainous area of northwestern Qinghai province where the quake struck was hindering rescuers and many survivors were forced to spend the night sleeping out in the open in freezing temperatures. "Thank you! Thank you! I will never forget it!" shouted a teenage girl as she was delicately pulled from the rubble of a police building in the pre-dawn hours, in footage broadcast by China Central Television. Another young woman moaned in pain as she was extracted from the remains of a building toppled by the force of the quake, which left scenes of devastation after reducing thousands of mud-and-wood homes to piles of rubble. Entire villages were laid waste by the quake, which killed more than 600 people and left tens of thousands homeless.

Much of the search was being done by hand because of the lack of digging equipment. In areas where heavy equipment had got through, excavators clawed through the rubble as survivors and rescuers looked on. Survivors sought shelter in the few buildings still standing in the devastated town of Jiegu, some grabbing quilts from the rubble and using the headlights of motorbikes to see, state media reports said. One resident described how neighbours had dug her out of the rubble. Her mother was not so lucky. "It was all so sudden, I had no time to react," the woman, identified as Lungme was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency. "Eight people in one of my neighbour's family were all buried. They were all dead when they were found," she added.

Tezin Drolma recounted how she had to drag her two-year-old son out of the house when the quake hit, with no time to put any clothes on him. Another mother said she showed her daughter's bloodied face to a doctor and asked him for help, but he could only show her his empty medical bag, Xinhua said. "We lack everything. We lack medical alcohol, needles and anaesthetic," explained Karma, the doctor working in the makeshift hospital. Most of those requiring treatment were Tibetans who eke out a meagre living in the rugged area as farmers and herdsmen. Officials had set up camps in the area at an outdoor sports field and racing track in Jiegu to accommodate the thousands of homeless, CCTV said. At one camp, Tibetan Buddhist monks in their maroon and saffron robes were seen milling about under towering foothills. While tents, clothes, quilts, medicine and heavy equipment was being rushed to the region, some were experiencing food shortages. "We have not eaten anything for 12 hours," Shi Huajie, a police officer, told Xinhua. "There is nothing to eat. The residents also have nothing to eat. We better just focus on rescuing."

by Staff Writers
Rampur, India (AFP) April 15, 2010
Indian aid workers battled blocked roads and downed power lines Thursday as they rushed aid to victims of a giant tornado that ravaged hundreds of thousands of homes and killed 129 people.

In West Bengal state, 250,000 people were made homeless by the twister, which packed winds of up to 120 kilometres (75 miles) an hour as it tore across isolated rural areas of northeast India and Bangladesh overnight Tuesday.

"We are facing a crisis in the relief operation. There is a shortage of manpower to distribute rice and medical aid among the victims," West Bengal minister for civil defence Srikumar Mukherji told AFP.

Uprooted trees blocking roads and broken electricity lines were further slowing down attempts to deliver aid, he said.

The storm, which brought torrential rain and high winds over a wide area, also killed thousands of cattle and ruined summer crops in the area, one of the poorest in India whose residents survive as subsistence farmers.

State officials across northeast India said a total of 127 people had been killed, with new victims reported Thursday in West Bengal, Bihar state and northeastern Meghalaya. Two others lost their lives in neighbouring Bangladesh.

In Rampur village, 200 miles (320 kilometres) north of West Bengal capital Kolkata, the roof of every house had collapsed or been blown away. Thousands of stranded people were taking shelter in school and temple premises.

Food aid in the form of rice and dried fruit was beginning to arrive as well as tarpaulins and plastic sheets, though distribution efforts were still not reaching most of the victims.

The National Disaster Management Authority in New Delhi said state governments were conducting relief operations.

"We offered to help but they said they are capable of dealing with the disaster and will seek help if required," senior official K.M. Singh told AFP in New Delhi.

Witnesses to the destructive power of the storm described their terror as the winds and rain struck around midnight Tuesday.

"The thatched roof fell on our head and then after two minutes the entire house fell on us," said Ratan Burman, a 45-year-old farmer, who lost his wife in the disaster.

"I managed to come out and pull my two sons out, but I was unable to save my wife."

A local weather office official said part of the storm had a "twister effect with the shape of an elephant trunk," which had formed out of 18-kilometre (11-mile) thick thunderclouds.

A long heatwave in the area "could have been a catalyst in the unusual thundercloud formation that triggered the tornado," said the director of the regional weather office in West Bengal state, Gokul Chandra Debnath.

A tornado forms within a very short time, unlike the cyclones that occur frequently in the area, which meant the weather office had been unable to issue a warning, he said.

Amid the widespread wreckage, there were already reports of anger.

A local television journalist in Rampur village, Soma Chakraborty, told AFP that thousands of people had surrounded government offices and schools, shouting in frustration at the slow rescue and relief operation.

In neighbouring Bihar, 81 people died and an estimated 40,000 homes were destroyed in Purnia, Araria and Kishanganj districts, the state disaster management office told AFP.

"We are trying to provide relief to all victims," Purnia district magistrate N. Sarvan Kumar said.

"Thousands of hamlets made up of thatched and thin steel sheets have been blown away. Mud huts and small houses were completely destroyed," he said.

There were 41 storm deaths in West Bengal, while four people perished and 500 homes were lost in the northern state of Assam, and 13,000 homes were damaged in Bangladesh, officials told AFP.

One death and more than 200 destroyed homes were reported by local officials in Meghalaya.

The cyclone came amid unseasonably high temperatures across much of northern India, where the mercury is already above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many areas.

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Rainy season to spark 'minor disasters' for Haiti: ICRC
Geneva (AFP) April 13, 2010
The international Red Cross warned Tuesday that a rainy season peaking in mid-May would spark "minor disasters" in Haiti, where 1.3 million people remain homeless after January's deadly quake. "There is certain to be ... a long series of minor disasters caused by the rainy season throughout the quake zone in the improvised settlements which we'll have to do our utmost to mitigate," said Alex ... read more

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