Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Saturday
Earthquake Devastates Algeria
Aired May 24, 2003 - 12:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Anger mixes with grief in earthquake-ravaged Algeria. The death toll climbs to more than 1,700, and the blame game is already in high gear. CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Algiers, and she has latest of the aftermath of the aftershocks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At Algiers' Al-Alya (ph) cemetery, no one is keeping count of the number of bodies being buried. Families and friends are gathered here to say good-bye to their loved ones that died in the earthquake.
Some 40 kilometers further toward the east, the town of Wumerdes (ph), the hardest hit area in the country. There, relentless drilling and digging, mostly by volunteers. "There's nothing, no equipment," says this man. "The government has abandoned us. People are digging with their bare hands. We can hear people shouting, but there's nothing we can do with bare hands." "Government officials only come here to gather our votes," this other man says, angrily, "that's all."
Workers from a public Chinese construction company have left their work to help lift concrete blocks with their bulldozers. They've given up hope of finding anyone else alive, they say. And soldiers have been digging with shovels to try and unearth bodies of the families that lived here.
Elsewhere in Wumerdes (ph) minor success. Two-year-old Yusta Hamanish (ph) was pulled out from the rubble, after having spent 40 hours there. The other members of her family are still missing. But miracles like these are few and far between.
This woman, desperately collecting whatever belongings she finds of the husband she lost when this four-story building collapsed. Behind, another apartment block, also badly damaged.
Wudel Beal Bualen (ph) lost his home, but says on the whole, he was lucky. "I thought I would die, but I kept calm," he said. "When it stopped, I saw my wife under the wall. We lifted the wall and pulled her out. The staircase had collapsed. But I saw my neighbor dead with her daughter in her arms."
Like most Algerians in the earthquake zone, he and his family have been camping outside.
(on camera): By nightfall, volunteers at this site are still digging with their bare hands, while others are left with only remnants of their past lives.
Rym Brahimi, CNN, Wumerdes (ph), Algeria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 24, 2003 - 12:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Anger mixes with grief in earthquake-ravaged Algeria. The death toll climbs to more than 1,700, and the blame game is already in high gear. CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Algiers, and she has latest of the aftermath of the aftershocks.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At Algiers' Al-Alya (ph) cemetery, no one is keeping count of the number of bodies being buried. Families and friends are gathered here to say good-bye to their loved ones that died in the earthquake.
Some 40 kilometers further toward the east, the town of Wumerdes (ph), the hardest hit area in the country. There, relentless drilling and digging, mostly by volunteers. "There's nothing, no equipment," says this man. "The government has abandoned us. People are digging with their bare hands. We can hear people shouting, but there's nothing we can do with bare hands." "Government officials only come here to gather our votes," this other man says, angrily, "that's all."
Workers from a public Chinese construction company have left their work to help lift concrete blocks with their bulldozers. They've given up hope of finding anyone else alive, they say. And soldiers have been digging with shovels to try and unearth bodies of the families that lived here.
Elsewhere in Wumerdes (ph) minor success. Two-year-old Yusta Hamanish (ph) was pulled out from the rubble, after having spent 40 hours there. The other members of her family are still missing. But miracles like these are few and far between.
This woman, desperately collecting whatever belongings she finds of the husband she lost when this four-story building collapsed. Behind, another apartment block, also badly damaged.
Wudel Beal Bualen (ph) lost his home, but says on the whole, he was lucky. "I thought I would die, but I kept calm," he said. "When it stopped, I saw my wife under the wall. We lifted the wall and pulled her out. The staircase had collapsed. But I saw my neighbor dead with her daughter in her arms."
Like most Algerians in the earthquake zone, he and his family have been camping outside.
(on camera): By nightfall, volunteers at this site are still digging with their bare hands, while others are left with only remnants of their past lives.
Rym Brahimi, CNN, Wumerdes (ph), Algeria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
