Salvadorans Dig Through Debris Amid Aftershocks

Written by Cynthia Long, Managing Editor, RedCross.org, with news reports

January 15, 2001 — More than 500 aftershocks, some greater than 5.0 on the Richter scale, and the threat of mudslides are keeping an already panicked population on edge after a massive 7.6 magnitude earthquake jolted El Salvador Saturday (Jan. 13). According to some reports, the death toll estimate has risen to more than 600, and officials expect the number to climb much higher as recovery efforts continue. As many as 1,000 people remain missing, and at least eight people have been confirmed dead in neighboring Guatemala.

Authorities worked through the night on Sunday and into Monday morning to evacuate homes in danger of being buried by further mudslides.

Salvadoran authorities on Sunday began a new evacuation effort in the hard-hit neighborhood of Las Colinas, on the outskirts of San Salvador. Police were going through neighborhoods, encouraging residents to go to shelters. Some residents were reluctant to leave their homes, many of them hoping to find more family members or friends.

The community of "Las Colinas"was one of the most severely affected. A landslide may have buried as many as 500 homes.

The neighborhood was buried beneath a wall of mud after the quake, which was centered about 65 miles southeast of San Salvador off the Pacific coast, triggered a landslide that swallowed hundreds of homes. Rescue workers, Red Cross volunteers and hundreds of desperate families and neighbors continue digging through the earth, often with their bare hands.

Walter Antonio Bonilla knocked on a fallen wall, waiting for a response. "Beneath here are my father and my four little brothers. Now the only thing I can do is to knock and dig, because I cannot lose hope," he told the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

Sandi Carolina also remained hopeful: "I'm looking for my brother, who is 12 years old; he must be around, among the rubble. This is my home," she said, pointing to a small house, mostly buried by a swell of mud. "I believe my brother is beneath here," she said as she started digging again.

There have been some rescues. A 22-year-old man was rescued after he alerted searchers by tapping for hours on concrete debris that had fallen on him. Another trapped man escaped death by using a cellular phone to call for help and inform rescuers of his location.

Las Colinas is one of many hard-hit areas. Local press reports said a landslide from a hill had wiped out Comasagua, about seven miles from Los Colinas, and that "some 3,000 people" were buried in mud, with rescue crews unable to reach the town because of poor roads.

Roads in El Salvador remain blocked by mudslides, specifically the highways from San Salvador to Santa Ana, San Miguel and Usulutan. National police estimate 4,692 houses were destroyed and 16,148 damaged. Eighty-seven churches were damaged as well, including the ruined Our Lady of Guadalupe Church overlooking Las Colinas.

The Salvadorean Red Cross' 120 ambulances have been working around the clock transporting the injured to hospitals.

Local press reports that the municipalities of Berlín, Alegría, Tecapá and Santiago de María, in the Department of Usulután (in the southern part of the country), have been the most affected. Area hospitals have been stretched to their limit. Recovery of bodies is especially difficult. A temporary morgue allows family members to identify the dead, but other relatives have been unable to find their loved ones before health officials were forced to begin mass burials. Salvadoran President Francisco Flores has requested 3,000 coffins from neighboring Colombia.

International help has been arriving, including search and rescue teams and heavy equipment to move debris. The international airport also has reopened to commercial traffic after the main passenger terminal had been closed because of heavy damage.

In Florida on Sunday, an emergency relief team from Miami-Dade County left Homestead Air Force Base bound for El Salvador with 25,000 pounds of blankets, medical kits and water jugs. Five relief workers went along to distribute the goods. The American Red Cross also deployed an International Response Team and will be delivering funds and relief supplies to the El Salvadoran Red Cross society.

Additional aid was pledged by the United States, Britain, Taiwan, Japan, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Panama and even Guatemala, which was also effected by the earthquake. In Washington, the Salvadoran ambassador to the United States, Rene Leon, described the devastation suffered by his country as worse than that left by Hurricane Mitch in 1998.