EL SALVADOR: UNITED NATIONS FOOD PROGRAMME SAY 200,00 VICTIMS OF EARTHQUAKE URGENTLY NEED FOOD AS EMERGENCY CONTINUES

Record ID: 337954

  • Title: EL SALVADOR: UNITED NATIONS FOOD PROGRAMME SAY 200,00 VICTIMS OF EARTHQUAKE URGENTLY NEED FOOD AS EMERGENCY CONTINUES
  • Date: 21st January 2001
  • Summary: COMASAGUA, EL SALVADOR. (JANUARY 19, 2001)(REUTERS) 1. SLV PEOPLE IN SHELTER; SLV PEOPLE STANDING IN LINE; MV WORKERS HANDING OUT FOOD; MV/SCU FOOD (15 SHOTS) 0.56 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME REPRESENTATIVE GUY GAUBREAU SAYING "We need to make an urgent call for more food for the more isolated areas." 1.08 3. SLV EXTERIOR OF SHELTER WITH WOMEN CARRYING AID MATERIALS; SLV INTERIOR AID SHELTER (3 SHOTS) 1.26 SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR. (JANUARY 19, 2001)(REUTERS) 4. SLV FIELD; MV SALVADORAN POLICE DIGGING; MV TWO SOLDIERS CARRYING BAGS OF QUICKLIME; POLICE SPREADING QUICKLIME (4 SHOTS) 1.41 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) UNIDENTIFIED SALVADORAN POLICEMAN SAYING "We are spreading quicklime in this area to prevent an epidemic developing." 1.53 6. SCU SEVERED FOOT; MV POLICE BURYING FOOT AND SPREADING QUICKLIME OVER IT; SLV FIELD; SLV POLICE COLLECTING BAGS OF QUICKLIME (6 SHOTS) 2.26 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SALVADORAN PRESIDENT FRANCISCO FLORES SAYING "We believe that one of the most important things in managing a crisis is to have clear priorities and to divide job tasks, this must be done with the countries as well. We needed to build an airlift and we did it with Venezuela. When we needed to enter an area with probable survivors we used experts from Mexico. When we needed emergency housing we coordinated this with Spain. So what we are saying is based on what we need we must divide the tasks accordingly." 3.08 8. SLV RELIEF WORKERS CARRY OUT DEAD 3.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th February 2001 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: COMASAGUA, SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR
  • Country: El Salvador
  • Reuters ID: LVAC75KZK2Z17MX5HXD3HVGGHPEG
  • Story Text: An estimated 200,000 Salvadoreans urgently needed food
    on Friday according to the UN's World Food Programme while
    emergency workers continue their efforts to prevent the
    outbreak of an epidemic of disease. El Salvador's President
    Flores meanwhile is urging for collaborative and united
    efforts to help the country and its people recover from last
    week's devastating earthquake.

    An estimated 200,000 Salvadoreans urgently needed food
    on Friday (Jan 19) according to the United Nation's World Food
    Programme (WFP) with relief workers begging the rest of the
    world for more aid for the tiny Central American nation
    devastated by a deadly earthquake last weekend.

    A WFP representative, Guy Gaubreau told Reuters Television
    that "We need to make an urgent call for more food for the
    more isolated areas." The WFP has already distributed about
    US$ 465,000 worth of food in the country.

    Meanwhile, emergency workers said fear was growing of
    epidemics of such diseases as cholera in scores of
    increasingly overcrowded refugee camps and throughout peasant
    villages in the mountains.

    Highlighting the sanitation crisis, severed limbs decayed
    amid tons of soil and debris at a garbage site in San Salvador
    that scavengers picked through for jewellry and valuables.

    Police officers in gas masks spread quicklime over the
    site, where emergency workers had dumped tonnes of earth and
    rubble from a deadly mudslide in Santa Tecla.

    Rotting corpses and contaminated water were seen as
    possible causes of epidemics. Only last month, dozens of
    children died from a stomach virus that struck thousands of
    people in this nation of 6.2 million.

    The government estimates that the quake, El Salvador's
    worst for a decade, has killed nearly 700 people and caused
    US$1 billion in damage.

    The opposition-dominated Congress approved spending about
    US$200 million from this year's budget to cope with the
    devastation, prompting the media to lambaste legislators for
    snubbing President Francisco Flores' appeals in television
    advertisements for the parties to act as "one team."
    "We believe that one of the most important things in
    managing a crisis is to have clear priorities and to divide
    job tasks," said President Flores on Friday, adding that this
    collaboration and cooperation also had to be in effect with
    neighbouring countries. Venezuela and Mexico have already
    worked with El Salvador to build an airlift and to rescue
    trapped survivors.


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