It was the worst quake to hit Algeria in more than two decades. State radio upped the death toll yesterday, quoting an Interior Ministry bulletin that some 1,467 people were killed and 7,207 injured. Officials warned that the death toll is likely to rise as rescuers find more bodies under tons of debris.
Two days after the earthquake, the initial shock and trauma began to give way to anger, with victims turning on real-estate developers, accusing them of corruption and shoddy construction methods. "Why is it that the new buildings have collapsed and the old ones are still standing," asked one man, surveying a pile of flattened buildings east of Algiers. Entire areas of ramshackle housing crumbled like houses of cards when the quake struck just as families were gathering at home for dinner, or to watch a UEFA football match on television. The worst-hit towns were Boumerdes, Reghaia and Rouiba on the eastern outskirts of Algiers. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Crescent has launched an appeal for $1.5 million to help an estimated 10,000 victims of the quake.
Friday was the first of three days of official mourning, as international aid poured into the country to help with the rescue effort. Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, South Korea, Russia and Turkey as well as the United Nations have all pledged to help a huge effort by the Algerians to help their already impoverished people. Trucks were criss-crossing the streets of Algiers to hand out food, blankets and clothes to those who lost everything in just a few moments of terror. Many people were apprehensively returning to their homes after spending two nights in the open, while thousands of Algerians living abroad were desperately seeking news of their loved ones, after undersea phone cables snapped, severing all phone links to Morocco.
