- May 20, 2024
- 1 second ago
Morocco Earthquake Rescue Efforts Intensify as Death Toll Passes 2,000 — WSJ
By Chao Deng, Stephen Kalin, Summer Said and Benoit Faucon
MARRAKESH, Morocco — Many residents of this ancient city spent another night sleeping outside as efforts to find survivors intensified in the nearby mountainous areas, which were hardest hit by a powerful earthquake that left more than 2,000 people dead.
The Friday night temblor was centered in a region south of Marrakesh, flattening unreinforced buildings in remote villages, injuring at least 2,050 people and causing widespread electricity and telephone blackouts. It had a magnitude of 6.8 and was felt in coastal cities such as Casablanca and as far away as Portugal, a distance of more than 400 miles.
A scramble is under way to rescue trapped survivors in the North African country, which is a popular tourist destination. Rural areas that are difficult to access suffered the worst damage, with most of the casualties in the rugged provinces of al-Haouz and Chichaoua, where the epicenter was located. The World Health Organization said 300,000 people had been affected.
Dozens of nations have offered manpower, equipment and other assistance to Morocco, but as of Sunday morning, the kingdom's government has only accepted rescue workers from Spain and Qatar, according to a spokesperson from the interior ministry.
"We desperately need help," said Mohammed Ettayar, a resident in a rural, mountainous area outside Marrakesh that was hit badly by the earthquake.
Underserved rural hospitals were quickly overwhelmed with casualties, which were evacuated by ambulance and in some cases helicoptered to urban centers. Authorities said they were determined to minimize the casualty numbers, but with many injured people in critical condition, they said they expected the death toll to rise.
An interior ministry official said at least three villages near the earthquake's epicenter were completely unreachable. Authorities were trying to bring in heavy machines to create a path in and start rescue efforts, he said, adding that several towns have been flattened.
"The top priority has been given to save those under rubble, then we are attending to those sleeping in parks and on the street. International aid has not arrived yet," he said.
Tommaso Della Longa, a spokesman for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the priority currently is to find people alive. "But then the community...will need help for the weeks and months to come. It's not something that will finish in a couple of days," he said.
Abdellatif Ouahbi, the mayor of Taroudant in the southwest, who is also the country's justice minister, described the situation as catastrophic, with residents dying under collapsed buildings and rockslides blocking the road to responders. "We welcome whoever has any means of rescue, let them come and help," he told Al Jazeera television.
In Marrakesh, people huddled in public parks, setting up tents under palm trees and street lamps. On a grassy pedestrian strip beside a road running past the Four Seasons Hotel and a shopping mall, they sat together beside public fountains. Charities such as World Central Kitchen distributed food to residents camped out in the streets.
Fearing aftershocks, Rita Diskou, her aunt and two cousins packed blankets, food and water and spent the second night at a pedestrian shopping strip downtown where others had gathered.
"It was cold," she said, but "we're afraid to not stay awake."
Asharf Bouzaid said he spent the night outside in Marrakesh praying for a miracle. "I still have half of my family under the rubble up the mountains," he said.
Outside the city, some residents were advised to evacuate their homes but found the roads were too damaged to go elsewhere. Beyond the disaster zone, thousands of people were too scared by the initial shaking to go back home.
The military quickly mobilized to lead rescue efforts, with state television showing soldiers in fatigues picking through rubble. King Mohammed VI ordered the government to rapidly provide shelter and rebuild houses for those in distress and called on local authorities to stockpile tents, food, beds and medicine to prevent a catastrophe.
Intissar Fakir, North Africa program director for the Middle East Institute, a Washington think tank, said there was "a lot of social anger" after the king waited 18 hours to make a public statement, which she called a missed opportunity.
"The monarchy is trying to catch up," Fakir said, predicting that any protests would be quickly quashed in a country where rights groups say many civil liberties are constrained.
When the earthquake struck late Friday night, Abdullah Amana's wife and elderly mother rushed out of their home in Marrakesh's Hay Inara district. They returned to an intact building but were still perturbed.
Amana, who works as a sales manager in Sweden, took the first flight he could find to be back with his family. "It's more for my mother who's getting old," he said. "When I'm back, I think she feels better."
Several international flights were canceled, but foreign tourists continued to arrive in Marrakesh. The country of around 38 million relies heavily on tourism revenues. The industry accounted for more than 10% of economic activity and total employment in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic battered the sector, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.
The quake shook the old city of Marrakesh, an 11th-century warren of stone buildings packed with World Heritage sites and droves of foreign tourists. A historic mosque was damaged and some buildings collapsed, a Moroccan official said, but the city escaped widespread damage. Moroccan news stations showed shops reopening in the old city and tourists snapping pictures.
Earthquakes in Morocco are uncommon but not unexpected, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. There has been none of this size within about 310 miles of Friday's temblor since 1900.
Ghassan Adnan and Summer Said contributed to this article.
Write to Chao Deng at [email protected] and Stephen Kalin at [email protected]
