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Toll estimates rise as quake rescuers depart
BHUJ, India (CNN) -- The Red Cross, one of many groups trying to cope with the enormity of the India earthquake, now estimates that the death toll could rise to at least 50,000. Efforts were turning from rescue to relief to deal with the fast-growing need for food, clothing and shelter among survivors in the disaster zone that is the western state of Gujarat. There are an estimated 200,000 people homeless. Overseas aid continues to pour in amid growing concerns about lawlessness and looting. In the rubble, demolition crews began to tear down buildings Wednesday as hopes of finding more survivors slipped away. Rescue teams made their last rounds with trained dogs and seismographs before departing.
Total damage in the aftermath of Friday's 7.9 magnitude quake has been estimated at up to $5.5 billion. Anything between 20,000 and 100,000 deadState officials have counted 7,162 bodies, with 28,830 injured. Officials have said the death toll may be 20,000 and the nation's defense minister says it could rise to 100,000. The latest estimate from the Red Cross falls between those figures. "Fifty thousand is very realistic," Robert James McKerrow, the leader of the International Committe for the Red Cross delegation for South Asia, told the Star News Television channel. "One-hundred thousand I would have difficulty supporting at the moment," he said. As the scale of Friday's disaster continues to defy precise figures, authorities have become increasingly concerned about feeding and housing the living. An attempt to hijack relief trucks has also raised the spectre of anarchy. Aid flown in from around the worldEmergency workers say rescue efforts, as well as aid for survivors, have yet to reach many parts of the earthquake-ravaged area around Bhuj, the closest town to the quake's epicentre. "Even within the town there are pockets that haven't got any relief," said Usha Nath of Kutch Navnirman Abhiyan, an Indian volunteer group that is trying to coordinate the distribution of emergency aid. "And outside Bhuj, the relief is only going to areas on the main road." A U.N. World Food Program flight with 41 tons of cargo, including health kits and generators, left for India on Tuesday. Another flight was to leave on Thursday. Aftershocks jolted the quake zone early Wednesday, raising fears that the buildings still standing could topple. Special trains for people fleeing the region were scheduled to depart Ahmedabad on Wednesday afternoon. Food not getting through
On Tuesday near Bhuj, nearly 100 Indians from an outlying village lined a road to try to intercept relief trucks carrying emergency supplies. Many complained of not having food or water since Friday. The villagers were attacked by Indian military officials, said CNN's Satinder Bindra, who watched the scene unfold. "When people come out in search of food, the police scare them away," one villager told CNN. "They fire at us, beat us with sticks and call us thieves. All this while people are dying." And at least one warehouse was looted, with 500 bags of grain reported taken. "No one here has anything to eat. People are in trouble," another man told CNN. "We are begging the government to give us food, and if we don't get food people will start killing each other." "It was terrible, terrible"Among the latest survivors were Nalinibehn Kumbhare and her 15-month-old son, Keyur, who were pulled from a ruined apartment building in Ahmedabad on Tuesday just as engineers prepared to bulldoze it. "The baby kept crying and crying, then he'd fall asleep from exhaustion. I couldn't even breast feed him, since I couldn't move," Nalinibehn said of her ordeal, her voice breaking. "It was terrible, terrible." In Bhuj, rescue workers roamed the ruins early Wednesday in a last-ditch search for the cries of survivors still pinned under the rubble. "We're just going through the area with sniffer dogs one more time before turning it over to the army to bulldoze," said Mike Thomas, team leader of the British search and rescue mission. At the same time, trucks moved into town carrying large cranes and bulldozers. Wood was piled high along the sides of the roads in anticipation of further funeral pyres as the heavy machinery uncovered yet more dead. At the Bhuj airport, workers put bodies into coffins on the runway, presumably for transport to other parts of India. The focus moved firmly Wednesday to the needs of survivors. Kenzo Oshima, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told a news conference Tuesday in New York that about 200,000 people were now homeless. A U.N. disaster assessment team is working with the Indian government in Ahmedabad and Bhuj to coordinate international assistance teams, he said. "There has been generous outpouring . . . but the magnitude of this disaster will require the attention and support of the international community even long after the immediate crisis abates," Oshima said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Rescue effort enters fifth frantic day RELATED SITES: U.S. Geological Survey |
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