International rescuers intensified their search for earthquake survivors in New Zealand today despite fading hopes of finding any more people alive and fears that a damaged 26-storey tower could collapse nearby at any time.
Specialist teams from quake-prone countries such as Japan and the United States used sniffer dogs and listening devices to search for signs of life, two days after a strong tremor struck the tourist city of Christchurch, killing at least 76 people in the country’s deadliest natural disaster for 80 years.
Rescue teams rushed today to a small church after it was believed that a woman’s voice had been heard — apparently the first sign in more than 15 hours that people might still be alive — but it turned out to be another false hope.
“Right now we do not have any active contact with any person or any indication of signs of life at any location we are working at,” fire rescue co-ordinator Jim Stuart Black said.
“We are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.”
Hopes are fading by the hour, but there was renewed activity today at the scene of what was feared to be the deadliest single collapse — a six-storey building where up to 100 people, including 11 Japanese students, are believed to be trapped.
A newly arrived Japanese rescue team headed straight for the site. Around 30 of them, in orange and blue overalls, gathered at the smouldering ruin for a morning briefing before heading into the pile of broken masonry, which had housed an English-language school on its third floor.
The team had three sniffer dogs. As they met, other rescuers carried out more bodies from the rubble and officials brought additional body bags to the scene.
“We have a big team and we are determined to help,” Kai Jinnai told Reuters.
“It is up the New Zealand fire service how long we are here, but while we are here we are going to do our very best.”
Operations at the so-called CTV building, which also housed a local broadcaster, faced the risk that a nearby 26-storey hotel tower could topple at any moment and bring other buildings down. The Grand Chancellor Hotel is already leaning badly.
Rescue teams had worked through a second night under floodlights, but reported finding only bodies. Still, they hoped for a miracle, along with distraught onlookers awaiting news of family and friends still trapped in rubble.
“Miracles happen and we’re keeping that in the forefront of our minds. That sort of things drives you and pushes you on,” rescue official Keith Norton said.
The last rescue was of a woman, Ann Bodkin, from a finance company building mid-afternoon yesterday.
Around 2,500 people had been injured, 164 seriously.
Rescue operations have focussed on the city’s central business district, which bore the brunt of the force 6.3 quake that struck early afternoon Tuesday when streets and shops were filled with lunchtime crowds.
There are fears that a collapse of the 26-storey Grand Chancellor, one of the city’s tallest buildings, might trigger a domino-effect and further hamper rescue efforts.
“It’s incredibly dangerous... if it hits the ground it will create a significant shock wave,” local mayor Bob Parker said.
The city has been shaken by more than 100 aftershocks, bringing down more debris. Roads are buckled and large pools of water have welled up from broken pipes and sewers.
In places, roads had collapsed into a milky, sand-coloured lake beneath the surface, the result of Christchurch’s sandy foundations mixing with subterranean water under the force of the quake. Officials call it “liquefaction” of the ground.
Investment bank J.P. Morgan estimates the quake could cost insurers US$12 billion (RM36 billion), while catastrophe modelling firm AIR Worldwide Estimates says the insurance industry faces claims of NZ$5 billion (RM11.5 billion) to NZ$11.5 billion.
Key said yesterday the estimates could neither be backed up or dismissed, but said the country could afford to rebuild the city although it would impact on near term economic growth.
Authorities said the arrival of more rescue specialists from Japan, Taiwan, Australia, Singapore and the United States would allow an expanded, intense search of three square km of the central city which is littered with flattened buildings.
More than 1,000 workers are expected to comb though shattered Christchurch buildings today.
A national state of emergency has been declared and the central city has been under curfew with soldiers patrolling in armoured personnel carriers.
Thousands of people spent a second night in emergency shelters set up in local schools, sports grounds, and at a race course. Fresh water supplies were being distributed from schools and portable toilets set up as services were disrupted.
0 comments:
Post a Comment