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Sunday Morning News

Massive Earthquake Devastates India

Aired January 28, 2001 - 9:00 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We turn to a much more serious subject. Hope, fear, grief, and shock, emotions running high today in earthquake-ravaged India. Authorities say a woman was pulled alive from the rubble in the town of Bhuj today after being buried for more than 56 hours.

Pictures just in near the epicenter of this terrible disaster, many buildings just crumbling in the wake of this 7.9 magnitude earthquake, a tremendously large earthquake.

Meanwhile, survivors are being terrorized by hundreds of aftershocks, many of them afraid to go indoors. One of those aftershocks was a big one in and of itself, magnitude 6.

With each passing hour, each new body that is pulled from the rubble, there is fear that missing relatives will be added to the list of now 11,000 victims. Those numbers, fearfully, continuing to grow. Doctors on the scene performing emergency operations, dozens of amputations, one doctor reporting doing no less than 50 operations in the span of 12 hours.

The International Red Cross has mobilized as a conduit of aid for people in the area. Among the concerns, just safe drinking water. There are -- the concern that they need these tablets which would purify the water to make it possible for them to drink the water.

Our CNN's Riz Khan is near the epicenter of the quake. He joins us now live via videophone -- Riz.

RIZ KHAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The key word is fear at the moment for the people of Gujarat. There was another tremor hit in the early hours of this morning at about 10:00 to 7:00, measuring about 5.9, just east of the original epicenter near Bhuj. Bhuj still remains flattened, 90 percent of the city went right down.

And people have been leaving the area of that epicenter because of fears of other quakes taking place. And this migration of people is obviously complicating things for the international rescue crews trying to get in and provide aid.

That is happening now. Crews from Switzerland, Britain, and other areas, France included, are getting in to try to bring some relief. Aerial shots of Bhuj show exactly the extent of the damage, and there's no power, and of course water and food supplies of serious concern to those trying to help the residents of that area.

The tremor this morning that took place just east of the area, which measured 5.9, has had people scared. They're still staying out of any high-rise areas in other places, like Ahmedabad, which suffered some damage from the earth -- the first earthquake on Republic Day. They've stayed out in the streets, avoiding going into any structures for fear that any further quakes or any structural damage might cause them to be the next batch of victims from this disaster.

The next stage will be, of course, trying to get cremations going to cut down the risk of disease because of the number of bodies piling up. Hospitals are overloaded, and the Indian air force has been trying to get supplies of firewood over to the area to try to get -- to help with the cremations. They're trying with 40 planes to get about 5,000 tons of firewood into the region.

George Fernandez, the defense minister, has been through, and other officials are coming through now to examine the situation. And Prime Minister Voto Alber Harivajpi (ph) is due to enter the area within 24 hours to give his assessment.

Help is being offered from around the world, including Pakistan, the neighboring country, which felt some of the earthquake in its lower eastern area. Chief executive Povez Musharif (ph) has said that he is willing to help. But officially there's been no response from India just yet.

Further south and east into the city -- into the country, there's been less of an understanding, I guess, or at least less of an experience of the extent of the tremors, though the initial quake did go down as far as Chennai, and there are fears that perhaps the epicenter might be shifting across a little bit.

The monitors of the earthquake situation are saying that Gujarat alone felt 57 further quakes, smaller quakes, since Friday, since that first tremor took place.

I'm Riz Khan reporting on the situation from Ahmedabad in India.

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