Miracle Survivors in Indian Quake Zone

B H U J, India, Jan. 30, 2001 -- A 7-month-old baby, aNew Jersey student and a handful of other survivors wererescued from demolished buildings today, more than four daysafter modern India's worst earthquake claimed tens of thousandsof lives.

Survivors found in mountain of rubble

News of the rescues was a small glimmer of hope against agrimly rising death toll from the quake, which measured 7.9 onthe Richter scale and hit the western state of Gujarat on Friday.

Officials admit that no one really knows how many peopleare buried under the mass of rubble across Gujarat, thoughDefense Minister George Fernandes said that, if his worst fearswere realized, 100,000 people could have died.

"I have said if my worst fears come true, and I hope myworst fears don't come true, then we are looking at a verylarge number of casualties," Fernandes told Reuters. He addedthat his estimate was not speculative.

The state government of Gujarat put the death toll at some20,000 but admits that figure could rise. Tens of thousands arebelieved to have been injured, and hundreds of thousands lefthomeless.

Some 20,000 Indian soldiers, joined by international teamsfrom Britain, France, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey, have beencombing the rubble in search of people still alive.

Glimmers of Hope

Faced with the pervasive stench of rotting corpses,exhausted rescue teams in towns across Gujarat had been near togiving up hope when they found a few people who had survivedmore than four days buried under debris.

In the ancient town of Bhuj, near the epicenter of thequake, a 7-month-old baby boy was found still alive,sitting in the lap of his dead mother, a security officialsaid. The baby was sent to hospital in Bombay.

In the main town of Ahmedabad, 33-year-old Nalini Kumbhareand her 14-month-old son were plucked from their four-story apartment building, severely dehydrated but alive.

"This has given us a lot more enthusiasm," said a beamingrescue worker.

A 24-year-old computer student from New Jersey wasrecovered from his family home in Bhuj after spending four dayslying on his bed with the ceiling just eight inches above hishead.

Veeral Dalal was discovered by chance in a building whichhad been listed for demolition. He was pulled out by a Britishteam.

Dalal, wearing a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, said he hadheard nothing from the rest of his family during his ordeal."The last I heard was yelling from my mother the day thebuilding came down," he said.

Down the road in the town of Bhachau, a Russian teamrescued a woman in her early 70s.

But for many other bereaved families with relatives buriedunder rubble there was no such good news.

No Sign of Disease Yet

In some remote villages in the coastal marshlands of Kutch,rescue operations had barely begun.

Although bodies retrieved from the debris were hastilycremated in makeshift roadside ceremonies, there was anomnipresent smell from decomposing corpses.

But there was no sign of epidemic.

"There is no disease as of now," B. Srivastava,superintendent of police for Kutch district, told Reuters.

But fear of fresh tremors and the prospect of a fifth nightin the open triggered a mini-exodus of thousands of better-offresidents of Ahmedabad.

"People are leaving in all directions. Some are going toBombay and others are leaving for Delhi and Rajasthan," said anofficial at Ahmedabad rail station, where travelers jostled forspace as they waited for the next train out.

Priority Shifts to Food and Shelter

By today the post-quake priority was shifting toproviding food and shelter for tens of thousands of homelesssurvivors.

Indian authorities were sending supplies of tents,earthmoving equipment, mobile hospitals and bleaching powder toprotect against the outbreak of any epidemic.

The road to Bhuj was packed with trucks transporting waterand wood for funeral pyres. Survivors were being fed atcommunity kitchens.

In the United States, President Bush told reporters that a jumbo jetfilled with supplies organized by the U.S. Agency forInternational Development had landed in India and another wason the way.

There were unconfirmed reports of looting in remotevillages, where people keep their wealth in gold, in jewelry orbars, hidden under the bed or in a family trunk.

Reuters reporters saw no sign of looting though some peoplehad returned to their homes briefly to retrieve valuables.

Disasters are frequent in India, often exacerbated by whatBritish charity Oxfam described as "a tough mesh of poverty,rampant and unplanned urbanization, chronic malnutrition andnightmarish population densities."

But the scale of the devastation from Friday's quake wasextreme even by those standards and shocked people across thecountry.