Log Cabin Democrat: Iran earthquake leaves 12 dead, 1,500 homeless 4/12/98

 Published Sunday, April 12, 1998

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Sunday, April 12, 1998Iran earthquake leaves 12 dead, 1,500 homeless

Last modified at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, 1998

By AFSHIN VALINEJAD

Associated Press Writer

HASSAN-KOLANGI, Iran -- Families and rescue workers abandoned their search Saturday for survivors of an earthquake that killed 12 people, flattened a dozen villages and left more than 1,500 people homeless in this remote northeastern region.

Friday's magnitude-5.9 quake destroyed more than 600 homes and shook dozens of villages in an area stretching 110 miles from the cities of Birjand to Gonabad in Khorasan province.

Thirty people were injured, Mohammad Abbasi, the mayor of Sarbisheh, one of the worst hit towns, told the official Islamic Republic News Agency.

A total of 20 aftershocks of magnitudes up to 4.8 jolted the area after the quake, the agency reported.

By late Saturday, authorities had ended emergency rescue work and state radio reported that the death toll had climbed to 12.

''We have officially stopped the search for survivors because we believe there are no more casualties,'' said a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Shortly after the quake hit at 7:31 p.m., relief workers, aided by the light of a full moon, pitched tents and distributed food, kerosene stoves and blankets to survivors.

At night, temperatures drop to 39 degrees in the remote area, which is dotted by poor villages and mud huts. The area has no telephones or electricity.

At the crack of dawn Saturday, 100 aid workers picked at the rubble with shovels looking for signs of life -- then for victims -- aided by relatives of the missing who also tried to extract utensils and other belongings from the debris.

Bulldozers removed piles of rubble and reopened many roads that had been blocked by fallen rocks.

The death toll was relatively low because the quake was preceded by a loud boom, giving many residents in this quake-prone region a chance to flee their homes, witnesses said.

''There was a thunderous noise, like rocks exploding, and everyone ran out of their homes,'' said Mohammad Khajazi, a grocer who has survived tremors before. ''I was already outside when the earth started shaking.''