15,000+ dead in iran

[denoir 0]

BBC Article

Quote[/b] ]

A huge earthquake has killed at least 15,000 people in south-eastern Iran, government sources say.

The quake had its epicentre near the ancient city of Bam - most of its buildings have been flattened.

Many people were believed to be buried under rubble. President Khatami has spoken of a "national tragedy" and urged all Iranians to help the victims.

A big relief operation is under way, with many foreign countries sending supplies and rescue workers to Iran.

The country suffers frequent earthquakes, with small tremors happening almost daily.

....

[Acecombat 0]

Damn thats disastrous 15,000 is the estimate i presume?

The final figure might rise , this is indeed tragic.

[Apollo 0]

This 100.000 souls poppulated city was build on an underground of sand and consisted for 80% building's made of sand/stone/wood materials.

Nature is truly the greatest terrorist of them all.

[Gollum1 0]

Read about this a few hours ago, really tragic.

Wasn't it in Iran where one earthquake killed 35,000 people in 1991 or 1990?

[denoir 0]

They've upped the numbers to 20,000 dead  

[EiZei 0]

I wonder what the news coverage would be like if this had happened in some western country..

[python3 0]

man, they are saying about 5,000-6,000 dead officially. Gov't estimates are around 20,000. They have had too many earthquakes in the '90's. Not a good day

[bn880 5]

Yes I found out about this a few hours back... unbelievable, what a new year they are going to have there.

[ran 0]

Yes I found out about this a few hours back... unbelievable, what a new year they are going to have there.    

Islam has not the same calendar btw

[sanctuary 19]

may the victims rest in peace.

I hope that the rescue team will find more and more survivors to this disaster.

[FSPilot 0]

That's horrible. I wish I could do something to help.

[Vognsen 0]

They believe the number is 25.000 dead now, and 50.000 injured. 350 people have died on the hospitals so far

What a sad day for the world.

[Assault (CAN) 1]

The number will likely rise as they uncover trapped bodies over the next few weeks.

Tyler

[Placebo 28]

I hope the Red Cross (as well as the various specialised earthquake rescue teams) from around the world will be allowed to go in to help (by allowed I mean avoid being murdered by "misguided" scum). Obviously a terrible tragedy I just hope religious/political/ethnic differences can/will be set aside to help those poor people who may otherwise die.

[ran 0]

I hope the Red Cross (as well as the various specialised earthquake rescue teams) from around the world will be allowed to go in to help (by allowed I mean avoid being murdered by "misguided" scum). Obviously a terrible tragedy I just hope religious/political/ethnic differences can/will be set aside to help those poor people who may otherwise die.

they don't need earthquake rescue teams anymore ...... the ones already on spot (including the ones coming from abroad) did all they could , and with every day passing , the odds of finding survivors are smaller and smaller

what they need now is help from humanitarian NGO's to find food , tents , medical material of all kinds along with medical personnel

they also need large ammounts of bulldozers and tools to cleane the ruins and to remove them , what is the most to be feared now is the risk of Epidemies

[denoir 0]

They're talking about 40,000 now

What about early warning systems? Don't they work or are there none for the Iran area? And how the hell could those buildings been so badly consructed? It was 6.5 on the Richter scale. Last time that happened in California, there were three dead. Ok, so this thing has now happened and there is very little to be done. What's worse however is that it could very well happen tomorrow again. They really need to do something to either predict or prevent this shit from happening again...

[ralphwiggum 6]

it is nearly impossible to predict when an earthquake hits.

and for the california one, 2 of 3 deaths were by falling roof of a stripmall(in case you are thinking a strip club, no, it'a an outside mall that is aligned in straight manner). since we pretty much live iwth earthquake, we have strict building codes regarding warthquake preparation. one of them is to make building so that it can swing in case of tremor. i highly doubt if Iran had such codes, and was not expecting earthquake since it was a rare occasion.

[Apollo 0]

The Californian way of building structure's so they can swing would be optimal ,however very expensive for a country like Iran given that earthquake's are very coman all over the country.Withought outside financial support i doubt that Iran will invest in such project's to reform housing in the country.The only thing that there can be done is is a sort of sysmological warning system that reduces the deathtoll of such earthquake's i think.

These houses were poorly constructed because people living there were genneraly to poor to have solid houses constructed.

[FSPilot 0]

Quote[/b] ]http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3808904/

Relief effort mobilized

Nations dispatched search teams and other assistance or promised to send help. Rescue teams from Switzerland, Britain, Germany, Russia and elsewhere arrived with equipment and dogs trained to search for survivors amid the rubble.

In Geneva, the international Red Cross issued a preliminary appeal for $12.3 million to help bring relief assistance to the quake zone, reporting that an estimated 50,000 people were left homeless.

President Bush offered assistance, putting aside political differences. The U.S. Agency for International Development on Saturday dispatched a search-and-rescue team from Fairfax, Va., along with a specially trained squad of 70 California firefighters.

“We greatly welcome any assistance from the United States. We welcome assistance from all countries except Israel,†Alavi said.

Israel and Iran are adversaries.

Iran’s government opened its airspace to all planes carrying aid or relief workers. It also waived visa requirements for foreign relief personnel.

Help is on it's way.

[bn880 5]

Yes I found out about this a few hours back... unbelievable, what a new year they are going to have there.

Islam has not the same calendar btw

Yeah, but in our terms...

[python3 0]

Well, it is an ancient city, those buildings have to be at leats hundreds of years old. Most of the buildings are made with cheap sand bricks, etc. No way the could withstand an earthquake. 70% of the city was destroyed.

[ran 0]

is it the Bam fortress that's completely destroyed ? that's a real shame , this was an awesome place

[FSPilot 0]

Quote[/b] ]The quake largely destroyed the city’s best-known structure, the Bam citadel. The tallest section of the ancient mud fortress crumbled like a sand castle.

[ran 0]

Quote[/b] ]The quake largely destroyed the city’s best-known structure, the Bam citadel. The tallest section of the ancient mud fortress crumbled like a sand castle.

it was the only fortress of that importance in [insert weird construction material name here] remaining

(i can't remember the name of this thing bah .....)

[toadlife 3]

When I was 5 years old, a quake hit my town and the entire downtown, and a majority of the homes on my town were completely destroyed.

As with this quake, most of the buildings that fell, were those that were built before the strict building codes we have today.

What was amazing is over 800 buildings in the town were destroyed, and not one person died.