Time Dwindles for Survivors of India Quake

N E W   D E L H I, India, Jan. 26, 2001 -- As the lonely quiet of the twilight hours pass into morning, India faces a second day of assessing the damage from one of the most intense earthquakes in its history.

Officials estimate at least 2,000 people are dead, but fear hundreds, if not thousands more are trapped under collapsed buildings.

Earthquake blasts western India

Estimates of the death toll were still vague, as rescue teams struggled to reach affected areas.

The quake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale, wreaking the majority of its havoc in western India — toppling high-rise buildings and ravaging communication lines.

The epicenter was in a dry desert region, near the city of Bhuj, which has a population of 2 million. Ninety percent of the structures in Bhuj developed major cracks while 10 percent were leveled, Indian Information Minister Pramod Mahajan said.

Local media reports said rescuers were combing through debris to rescue 30 schoolchildren who were on a school excursion from the southern Indian city of Bangalore.

But by far the hardest hit was the neighboring industrial city of Ahmadabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state, which is home to more than 4 million people.

"We are really suffering," said one local man. "Such big slabs have fallen down. The whole house has fallen apart."

News outlets across India and around the world broadcast heartbreaking scenes from western India of survivors gathering around campfires on the streets in the cold winter night, as women wept and rescuers continued their desperate search.

The death toll was higher than it might have been because most people were at home today celebrating the country's Republic Day holiday when the quake hit.

Tensions Rise

Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared a state of emergency and the army was put on emergency alert, as thousands of tents and other essential supplies were flown in to the trouble spots from the capital, New Delhi.

Hospitals in Ahmedabad were crammed with injured victims.

Many residents complained of delays in the rescue operations. "I was hurt during the quake but I have not received any treatment so far," said a resident of Ahmedabad. "The weather is bad but we have no choice but to fend for ourselves — and there are many like us."

Damage to a major communications grid has complicated the process of coordinating rescue efforts.

The Republic Day holiday also seemed to have caused delays in responding to victims of the quake. People were seen using their bare hands to scratch out the rubble as bulldozers hadn't yet arrived at the site of several building collapses.

Still others worried about losing their homes. Mobile vans commissioned by the Gujarat state government wound through the streets warning residents about the danger of aftershocks.

Officials counted at least 83 aftershocks today, some as high as 5.6 on the Richter scale.

But in the old quarter of the industrial city of Ahmedabad, some residents of ground floor apartments nevertheless returned to their dwellings — even as a number of buildings tilted at precarious angles while still hinged to the ground floors.

Shravan Kumar of India's Meteorological Department said: "the kind of seismic activity around the area makes it likely that the areas around Bhuj could feel the effect of aftershocks," he said.

"If the aftershocks are too strong, even areas farther down could feel tremors."

Felt at a Distance

India is prone to earthquakes, but this one was unusual. It was felt as far away as Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh — some of these places more than a thousand miles away.

In the neighboring state of Rajasthan, 20 students were celebrating Republic Day when the roof of the building they were in caved in. Rescuers said they were still trapped in the debris.

At least four people were killed when houses in Pakistan collapsed.

Today's disaster area has not had a lot of quakes — so the rock below has not been split by fault lines, and when a quake does happen, the whole region shakes.

"The seismic energy — the vibrations created by the earthquake — travel very efficiently and they're felt far away," Mary Lou Zoback of the U.S. Geological Survey.

In Bombay, the industrial hub of India, strong tremors were felt and a few water tanks on top of buildings sustained cracks and toppled into the streets. There were no reports of injuries.

A report published by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research early last year warned of quakes in the region as Bombay and Ahmedabad are located on a geological fault line.

The World Bows Its Collective Head

The earthquake appeared to be larger than the one that hit Turkey in 1999 and killed 18,000 people, Bill Smith of the U.S. Geological Survey in Colorado told Good Morning America.

Condolences and offers for help from various world leaders poured in.

In Washington today, President Bush offered his condolences to the victims of the quake. "I am saddened by the news of the earthquake," he said. "I send my condolences and those of the American people to the families of the many victims in the cities and villages of Gujarat and elsewhere," he said. Reiterating that "earthquakes know no political boundaries," Bush extended his condolences to Pakistan as well.

Putting aside a history of acrimony between his country and India over the disputed Kashmir valley, Pakistan military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf today offered his condolences to Vajpayee in a written statement. "I have been saddened at the tragic loss of life and property in the earthquake which hit large parts of India today," the message said. "The government and people of Pakistan share the grief of the bereaved families."

On June 16, 1819, another quake in the same region of India killed about 2,000 people.

ABCNEWS.com's Leela Jacinto, ABCNEWS' Ned Potter, and Saitish Jacob in New Delhi and ABCNEWS Radio contributed to this report