Hope ebbs for missing as quake help arrives
Source: Agencies |
February 25, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
RESCUERS fanned out into unchecked areas of New Zealand's quake-devastated city yesterday looking for any remaining life in the rubble, as the death toll rose to 98 with "grave fears" that many of the 226 missing are dead.
"Rescue team! Rescue team!" a visiting firefighter from Australia called out as his team went through an office building apparently abandoned during Tuesday's disaster in Christchurch. There was no response.
Police said up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in the tangled concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television or CTV building, where dozens of students from China, Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries were believed buried when an English language school collapsed along with other offices. Twenty-three bodies were pulled from the building yesterday, but not immediately identified.
"The longer I don't know what happened, the longer my agony becomes," said Rolando Cabunilas, 34, a steel worker from the Philippines whose wife, Ivy Jane, 33, was on her second day of class at the school when the quake struck. She hasn't been heard from since.
The official death toll from the magnitude 6.3 temblor stood at 98, police Superintendent Dave Cliff said. An additional 226 people were listed as missing, and Prime Minister John Key said there were "grave fears" that many of them did not survive.
Two days after the quake, the focus was shifting away from possible rescues toward the recovery of bodies and securing the buildings left unstable.
Authorities also struggled to restore power, reliable phones and water. Mayor Bob Parker warned residents to assume that tap water is contaminated and boil it before drinking it or cooking with it. People were streaming out of the city to stay with friends or relatives. The Civil Defense Ministry said about 1,000 had used special flights sending people to other cities.
Hundreds of foreign specialists - from China, the US, Britain, Japan and Singapore - arrived to bolster local police and soldiers and allow teams to broaden their search.
"Now we've got the capability of going out and doing searches in areas where there may still be people trapped that hitherto we haven't been able to address," Civil Defense Minister John Carters said.
Teams with sniffer dogs moved along city streets, building to building. At times, a dog would let out a bark and rush excitedly into the rubble, the rescuers following gingerly after them. At one place, they uncovered a body pinned under a huge chunk of concrete.
Mayor Parker said 60 percent of a broad area of the inner city had undergone preliminary checks.
Key has declared the quake a national disaster, which analysts estimate could cost up to US$12 billion in insurance losses.
"Rescue team! Rescue team!" a visiting firefighter from Australia called out as his team went through an office building apparently abandoned during Tuesday's disaster in Christchurch. There was no response.
Police said up to 120 bodies may still lie trapped in the tangled concrete and steel that was the Canterbury Television or CTV building, where dozens of students from China, Japan, Thailand and other Asian countries were believed buried when an English language school collapsed along with other offices. Twenty-three bodies were pulled from the building yesterday, but not immediately identified.
"The longer I don't know what happened, the longer my agony becomes," said Rolando Cabunilas, 34, a steel worker from the Philippines whose wife, Ivy Jane, 33, was on her second day of class at the school when the quake struck. She hasn't been heard from since.
The official death toll from the magnitude 6.3 temblor stood at 98, police Superintendent Dave Cliff said. An additional 226 people were listed as missing, and Prime Minister John Key said there were "grave fears" that many of them did not survive.
Two days after the quake, the focus was shifting away from possible rescues toward the recovery of bodies and securing the buildings left unstable.
Authorities also struggled to restore power, reliable phones and water. Mayor Bob Parker warned residents to assume that tap water is contaminated and boil it before drinking it or cooking with it. People were streaming out of the city to stay with friends or relatives. The Civil Defense Ministry said about 1,000 had used special flights sending people to other cities.
Hundreds of foreign specialists - from China, the US, Britain, Japan and Singapore - arrived to bolster local police and soldiers and allow teams to broaden their search.
"Now we've got the capability of going out and doing searches in areas where there may still be people trapped that hitherto we haven't been able to address," Civil Defense Minister John Carters said.
Teams with sniffer dogs moved along city streets, building to building. At times, a dog would let out a bark and rush excitedly into the rubble, the rescuers following gingerly after them. At one place, they uncovered a body pinned under a huge chunk of concrete.
Mayor Parker said 60 percent of a broad area of the inner city had undergone preliminary checks.
Key has declared the quake a national disaster, which analysts estimate could cost up to US$12 billion in insurance losses.
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