Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 22, 1990 TAG: 9006220824
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NICOSIA, CYPRUS LENGTH: Long
At least 100 aftershocks continued to rattle the northern region near the Caspian Sea, shaking the capital, Tehran, and causing new landslides that trapped trucks carrying relief supplies.
But a fleet of rescue helicopters and planes got through to areas cut off by Thursday's quake. The planes brought tons of supplies and carried out thousands of survivors.
The earthquake measured at least 7.3 on the Richter scale and struck at 12:30 a.m., while most Iranians were asleep. The temblor was centered 125 miles northwest of Tehran.
The official Islamic Republic News Agency said relief officials had compiled a list of 17,628 dead and 36,396 injured. The Iranian mission to the United Nations released a death toll of 25,000, and said the count would likely rise as rescuers reached more remote areas. Tehran Radio reported 25,000 killed or wounded but provided no breakdown.
Iranian authorities did not immediately allow foreign-based reporters to enter Iran to cover the disaster.
Rescuers began using dogs today to search for survivors and victims trapped beneath the mountains of rubble. IRNA, monitored in Nicosia, quoted an air force commander as saying the introduction of police dogs "yielded good results."
The commander, identified only as Gen. Naderian, said 6,000 victims, many injured but alive, were dug out and airlifted from Gilan and Zanjan provinces to hospitals in other cities.
Naderian did not say how many dogs were used.
He said bad weather had grounded some relief aircraft, but they began getting through today. IRNA said 10 C-131 transport planes and 30 Chinook helicopters were involved in the evacuation of victims after weather conditions had improved.
More than 3,000 tons of relief supplies have been flown to the region in 50 trips by air force transport planes, Naderian said.
Officials pleaded for blood, blankets and medicine, and other countries today promised to send supplies.
Government television showed young men desperately digging at debris from flattened concrete buildings in Rasht, 175 miles northwest of Tehran, with a population of 189,000 people. Bulldozers and cranes lifted away larger pieces of debris. Bulldozers also tried to clear roads for ambulances and other rescue vehicles.
A dam south of Rasht burst, flooding the surrounding area, IRNA said.
Frightened survivors spent the night in the open, afraid to return to their homes in case of more aftershocks. In quake-devastated towns, women in black chadors flanked by weeping children camped out in public squares.
Iran's spiritual leader, Ali Khamenei, called the disaster a "divine test" and urged the bereaved residents of the stricken provinces "to pass this test with pride through patience and cooperation."
Khamenei and President Hashemi Rafsanjani flew to the area to supervise relief operations. Rafsanjani declared three days of mourning.
More than half those killed and injured were in Zanjan province, and IRNA said the second-hardest hit was Gilan province. Telephone lines and electricity and water supplies were cut in the two farming provinces, which have a combined population of 2.7 million.
In the village of Ab-Dar in Zanjan, state television showed mountains of rubble, and a speaker said it was all that was left of apartment buildings. They appeared to have been shaken off their foundations, collapsing like a deck of cards.
The camera zoomed in on a stuffed toy rabbit and a child's shoe lying in a street carpeted with dust.
IRNA said at least 1,000 people were killed in Ab-Dar alone.
Several hundred Revolutionary Guards were flown from Tehran Thursday night to join rescue teams. The government ordered an air bridge set up between Tehran and the stricken areas to evacuate survivors, the news agency said.
Offers of help poured in from around the world. Japan said today it would send a rescue team and $500,000 in emergency aid. The European Community promised $1.2 million in emergency relief, and the United States offered humanitarian assistance. Even Iraq, one of Iran's most bitter enemies, offered condolences and aid.
President Bush sent a message of condolence to Rafsanjani along with the U.S. offer of assistance. It was delivered to Iran by an unidentified country because the United States does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran.
The earthquake was the worst since a quake registering 7.7 on the Richter scale struck Iran on Sept. 16, 1978, killing 25,000 people. On Dec. 7, 1988, roughly the same number of people died in a quake in nearby Soviet Armenia that registered 6.9 on the Richter scale of ground motion.
Thursday's temblor measured 7.3 on the Richter scale, the Geophysics Center at Tehran University said. The U.S. Geological Survey, however, measured it at 7.7.
It shook buildings and shattered windows in Tehran, but apparently caused no deaths in the capital. In the neighboring Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, the temblor slightly damaged some older buildings in Baku but caused no casualties, the Soviet news agency Tass said.
The Richter scale measures ground motion as recorded on seismographs. Every increase of one number means a tenfold increase in magnitude. A reading of 7 on the scale indicates a major earthquake capable of widespread heavy damage.
by CNB