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CNN Saturday Morning News
Earthquake Algeria Leaves 1,600 People Dead
Aired May 24, 2003 - 07:33 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.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Alga, grief is turning to anger as survivors begin to take stock of the damage wrought by a devastating earthquake. More than 1,600 people were killed in the quake, which has as many survivors wondering how much of the death and destruction could have been prevented.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Algiers and she joins us by video phone with the latest -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andrea, the death toll has actually just been revised. We understand government figures are now up to 1,723 dead and the number of injured is now more than 7,600 people injured. In one of the areas that was the hardest hit that I went to see yesterday, Bumardesh (ph), well, about 10,000 people have been left homeless. And as you mentioned, indeed, a lot of anger now and increasing anger, I would say.
First of all, people are complaining that there were a lot of delays in bringing rescue to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) areas. And then there are a lot of complaints about, beginning now to come out about the structures, the buildings themselves. A lot of people wondering how these buildings passed the safety tests since some buildings just totally collapsed and others just next to them are still standing. So that's probably going to be the next step or the next phase, if you will.
That said, rescue efforts still very much under way, Andrea. Now, a lot of international rescue teams are here and everybody here that we're talking to is praising most of all the effort, the huge national mobilization just by ordinary Algerians, volunteers that have just come and poured into those areas just to help and try and see if they can do anything -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: I was just going to ask you, we did see the dogs searching the rubble there, so presumably there's still the expectation they might find survivors. But how much longer do they expect the search for survivors to continue?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a very good point. It is very much a race against time and it's now been more than two days, Andrea. So definitely there are less and less areas where we're seeing those sniffer dogs and, quite sadly, more and more areas where we're seeing bulldozers just lifting tons of concrete blocks here and there because there's less and less hope in many areas. That said, again, a lot of people, just volunteers, are coming in to help and a lot of them are just digging with their bare hands because no matter what they're told, people still believe until the very end that there will be some hope of finding relatives.
I have this image in mind, Andrea, of a person who was, one man who was just wandering around, a very young man, and he'd been working non-stop since Wednesday because he heard his -- the apartment that his sister was living totally collapsed. And he'd been looking for her for three days. And he was, he'd just been working non-stop with his bare hands digging for three days to see if he can see her. And that's the kind of story we encounter all the time -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Rym, I don't know if you've had a chance to actually look around the city very much, but just how widespread is the damage? Is it concentrated or is it really all across the capital?
BRAHIMI: It is quite widespread. It's not the area -- it's not in every single area of the Algerian capital. It's affected, actually, most of the popular neighborhoods, those that are toward the east, because most of the -- the epicenter is toward the east outside of Algiers, in fact, about 40 miles to the east, as well as some 15 to 20 miles to the east are two very hard hit areas.
But inside the Algerian capital, a lot of the very poor neighborhoods have been hard hit and that's because a lot of the buildings there are very old. And, again, I've been talking to residents who are very unhappy because they say government officials came to visit us when they needed our votes and they promised that they would redo these buildings and they haven't. And now entire families have died because those buildings have collapsed.
So, again, there's a lot of source of anger there and people inside the Algerian capital are afraid to go back into those buildings. There are a lot of cracks on the walls and they're terrified. They don't want to go back. They've been sleeping outside all this time -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Rym Brahimi in Algiers, thank you very much.
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 - 07:33 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN ANCHOR: In Alga, grief is turning to anger as survivors begin to take stock of the damage wrought by a devastating earthquake. More than 1,600 people were killed in the quake, which has as many survivors wondering how much of the death and destruction could have been prevented.
CNN's Rym Brahimi is in Algiers and she joins us by video phone with the latest -- Rym.
RYM BRAHIMI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Andrea, the death toll has actually just been revised. We understand government figures are now up to 1,723 dead and the number of injured is now more than 7,600 people injured. In one of the areas that was the hardest hit that I went to see yesterday, Bumardesh (ph), well, about 10,000 people have been left homeless. And as you mentioned, indeed, a lot of anger now and increasing anger, I would say.
First of all, people are complaining that there were a lot of delays in bringing rescue to the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) areas. And then there are a lot of complaints about, beginning now to come out about the structures, the buildings themselves. A lot of people wondering how these buildings passed the safety tests since some buildings just totally collapsed and others just next to them are still standing. So that's probably going to be the next step or the next phase, if you will.
That said, rescue efforts still very much under way, Andrea. Now, a lot of international rescue teams are here and everybody here that we're talking to is praising most of all the effort, the huge national mobilization just by ordinary Algerians, volunteers that have just come and poured into those areas just to help and try and see if they can do anything -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: I was just going to ask you, we did see the dogs searching the rubble there, so presumably there's still the expectation they might find survivors. But how much longer do they expect the search for survivors to continue?
BRAHIMI: Well, that's a very good point. It is very much a race against time and it's now been more than two days, Andrea. So definitely there are less and less areas where we're seeing those sniffer dogs and, quite sadly, more and more areas where we're seeing bulldozers just lifting tons of concrete blocks here and there because there's less and less hope in many areas. That said, again, a lot of people, just volunteers, are coming in to help and a lot of them are just digging with their bare hands because no matter what they're told, people still believe until the very end that there will be some hope of finding relatives.
I have this image in mind, Andrea, of a person who was, one man who was just wandering around, a very young man, and he'd been working non-stop since Wednesday because he heard his -- the apartment that his sister was living totally collapsed. And he'd been looking for her for three days. And he was, he'd just been working non-stop with his bare hands digging for three days to see if he can see her. And that's the kind of story we encounter all the time -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Rym, I don't know if you've had a chance to actually look around the city very much, but just how widespread is the damage? Is it concentrated or is it really all across the capital?
BRAHIMI: It is quite widespread. It's not the area -- it's not in every single area of the Algerian capital. It's affected, actually, most of the popular neighborhoods, those that are toward the east, because most of the -- the epicenter is toward the east outside of Algiers, in fact, about 40 miles to the east, as well as some 15 to 20 miles to the east are two very hard hit areas.
But inside the Algerian capital, a lot of the very poor neighborhoods have been hard hit and that's because a lot of the buildings there are very old. And, again, I've been talking to residents who are very unhappy because they say government officials came to visit us when they needed our votes and they promised that they would redo these buildings and they haven't. And now entire families have died because those buildings have collapsed.
So, again, there's a lot of source of anger there and people inside the Algerian capital are afraid to go back into those buildings. There are a lot of cracks on the walls and they're terrified. They don't want to go back. They've been sleeping outside all this time -- Andrea.
KOPPEL: Rym Brahimi in Algiers, thank you very much.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
