- Title: EL SALVADOR: SPORADIC AFTERSHOCK TREMORS CONTINUE AFTER EARTHQUAKE
- Date: 18th January 2001
- Summary: ARMENIA, EL SALVADOR (JANUARY 17, 2001) (REUTERS) SLV VICTIMS; SCU SMALL CHILD DRINKING; MV FAMILY WALKING UP HILL; SLV VICTIMS STANDING IN LINE; SCU MOTHER HOLDING CHILD; SLV VICTIMS LINING UP FOR FOOD; SCU SMALL GIRL TALKING (9 SHOTS) SLV RUBBLE; SLV RESCUE WORKERS DIGGING THROUGH RUBBLE; SLV RESCUE WORKERS DIGGING NEAR LARGE PLOUGH (3 SHOTS)
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2001 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: SAN SALVADOR; SANTA TECLA; AND ARMENIA, EL SALVADOR
- Country: El Salvador
- Topics: Disasters,Environment
- Reuters ID: LVA9165LENKIR0TOWJ7E3SSOP9SB
- Story Text: Salvadorans are braced for new aftershocks as sporadic tremors continue after a deadly earthquake which killed hundreds over the weekend.
Tens of thousands of homeless people spent a fourth night in the open or in makeshift shelters of plastic sheets and bamboo poles. They also huddled in blankets donated by international relief organisations to help El Salvador cope with its worst quake in a decade.
Since Saturday's earthquake, which killed at least 675 people in the smallest Central American nation, some of the strongest aftershocks occurred late Tuesday with magnitudes of
7 rocking buildings, rattling windows and cracking walls.
The aftershocks unleashed rumours -- repeatedly quashed by the government -- that the tremors could cause tidal waves or volcanic activity. They also fuelled demand for lower-floor rooms in multi-storey hotels.
The government hoped to continue airlifting food, drink, medicine and blankets to the refugees in isolated towns cut off from the rest of the country after Saturday's 7.6 magnitude quake.
More than 2,500 people were injured and some 500 are missing so the toll is expected to climb.
Emergency workers have evacuated about 45,000 people from isolated areas.
Congress has approved legislation to prevent retailers from hiking prices of bottled water and basic foods such as beans and corn.
In Santa Tecla -- the site of the worst mudslide which obliterated parts of the middle-class neighbourhood and killed hundreds -- rescue workers, who failed on Monday and early on Tuesday to find survivors, gave way to earth-moving equipment.
The change meant the last buried survivor to be unearthed in the rescue operation was a small dog -- nicknamed "Miracle"
-- whose whimpering alerted emergency workers to dig him out.
Despite the bulldozers, some emergency workers sifted through debris for photographs that they piled in a truck so that mourners might cling to something of their loved ones.
Emergency workers unloaded scores of corpses from trucks recovered earlier from Santa Tecla at the municipal cemetery.
They allowed mourners, covering their mouths, to peer inside and take relatives' bodies away for private burial.
Unidentified bodies were placed in common graves.
Santa Tecla residents, supported by ecologists, angrily blamed the government for allowing trees to be cleared, despite their protests, to make way for the construction of mansions on hilltops. Removing the trees left the area more vulnerable to mudslides, they said.
The quake, whose epicentre was off the Pacific coast about 65 miles (100 kms) southeast of the capital, was felt as far north as Mexico City.
The El Salvador government estimated the earthquake caused up to US$1 billion damage in its US$6 billion-a-year economy.
Since taking office in 1999, President Francisco Flores has taken steps to modernize the country, including this month's implementation of the U.S. dollar as the standard currency, to woo foreign investment. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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