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Iran
Major Earthquake Strikes Southeast Iran
2003-12-26
A major earthquake struck southeast Iran on Friday, and state media said many people were feared dead.
Why, oh why, didn’t this strike the mosques in Qom?
Iranian television said the magnitude 6.3 quake hit near the city of Bam, about 630 miles southeast of the capital, Tehran. It said all houses in the quake region that were made of brick which is all of them had collapsed, and that phone lines to the region had been severed. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the newscaster said: "Many fatalities are feared."
Fox News was estimating up to 10,000 dead.
"Authorities have demanded immediate blood donations to save the lives of those who have been admitted to hospital in the provincial capital of Kerman," the newscaster said. The U.S. Geological Survey reported the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.7, big enough to cause severe damage. The survey said it occurred at 5:27 a.m. local time.
Bad for the people. Perhaps a few hundred bricks fell on Khatami’s head?

Here's more detail, from Pak Tribune...
A devastating earthquake rattled Bam, a historic city in southeast Iran on Friday, and officials said the final death toll may top 10,000. Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the quake occurred, said there was still no precise number of dead from the magnitude 6.7 quake, but officials working in Bam had given him that figure. "The quake hit the city when most of the people were in bed, raising fears that the death toll may go higher," he said.
Dropped the whole city in on them...
Reuters news service reported one official confirming that at least 2,000 had been killed. Officials surveying the city of 80,000 people from helicopter said about 60 percent of the city's houses were destroyed, Khoshrou said. Water, power and phone lines were cut. The earthquake struck at about 5:30 a.m.

10,000 dead in a city of 80,000. That's breathtaking. A quake of about the same magnitude hit California four days ago, scaring several people.
Two people killed and about 40 buildings collapsed or severely damaged at Paso Robles. At least 40 people injured in the Paso Robles-Templeton area. Buildings damaged and small fires occurred at Cambria and Morro Bay. The airport at Oceano was closed due to cracks in the runway.More than 10,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Paso Robles area.
Earthquakes have been rattling Iran for at least as long as they've been rattling California, and there have been civilized people living there much longer. The quake in Panama and Costa Rica today disrupted a few Christmas parties and there were a few minor injuries. What's the difference? Or is there something I don't know about earthquakes (there's lots) that I should?


Iran Broadcasting puts the death toll at 4000. Headlines:
  • 90% of quake victims in critical condition
  • 60 percent of Bam houses destroyed
  • Red Crescent call for aid to victims
  • IRC gear up to help quake victims

Hindustan Times puts the quake toll at 15,000.
Earlier, the state news agency IRNA had quoted Mohammad Ali Karimi, governor of Kerman province, as telling Iranian President Mohammad Khatami over the telephone that 5,000 to 6,000 people had died. State television had earlier said that 4,000 people had died and another 30,000 were injured.
That would be the Iran Broadcasting figure...
The tremor, which struck before dawn as most of the city's 200,000 residents were asleep, has launched a major international relief effort.
Population grew some, did it?
Dozens of bodies littered the streets of the city, built almost entirely of mud brick and ill-equipped to withstand a big temblor. Bereaved residents wandered the streets pleading for the authorities to speed up rescue efforts. "Seventeen of my relatives are buried under the ruins of my home, they've got to get a move on or all of them will die," said one, who gave his name only as Ali, as he attempted to shift the rubble with a spade. "Why is help so slow in coming? If we were in the West, all resources would have been mobilised," said one survivor.
Because we're looking at something of biblical proportions. Al Qaeda's not a patch on the Hand of God...
"We have neither water nor food," said an old woman, whose black veil was almost white with the dust that enshrouded everyone from head to foot.
It happened this morning. I assume the Iranian authorities are trying to organize aid...
But anger was beginning to kick in among the survivors, livid at the sluggish rescue mission.
I think I'd save that for later. Digging seems more to the point now.
Provincial governor Karimi said, "One thing is sure: the historic quarter of Bam has been completely destroyed and many of our countrymen are underneath the ruins. The situation is very worrying."
Yeah. I'd call 15,000 dead worrying.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi-Lari said the top "priority is to get help to the injured who are under the rubble. It is very cold in the region, and we are very concerned" for them. "Our second priority is to get the wounded to hospitals in the region," the minister said, adding that five military aircraft were shuttling between Bam and Kerman. More than 90 per cent of the old city was destroyed. Besides the flattened homes, the historic centre of Bam with its 2,000-year-old citadel, once the largest mud-brick structure in the world, was gone forever.

Fox News is now reporting the toll at upwards of 20,000. Two hospitals collapsed. EU, U.S., Russia sending aid.
Posted by:Steve White

#17  The New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in southern Missouri remain the largest (two) earthquakes ever to hit the contiguous U.S. (the main event is estimated at a magnitude 7.9).

The point being that to ask whether an area is earthquake prone is irrelevant cos EVERYWHERE is prone to earthquakes. What matters is the construction quality and safety mechanisms.
Posted by: phil_b   2003-12-27 2:32:17 AM  

#16  #10...that thought occurred to me also.Can any commenters out there enlighten us regarding location of nuclear facilities within earthquake prone areas of Iran.Could an underground test yield enough force to cause fault release?(I'm being premptively lazy before before looking around for info myself.)
Posted by: RH   2003-12-26 11:37:06 PM  

#15  It was the Jew H.A.A.R.P.
Posted by: Shipman   2003-12-26 8:49:12 PM  

#14  Where are they going to bury the dead though? My guess would be in mass graves dug anywhere they can. Iran disrespected their safety in life, they'll do it to their corpse in death.

What do you guys think?
Posted by: Charles   2003-12-26 8:29:13 PM  

#13  raptor, #11
That's the question that came immediatly to my mind.
California: 6.7 Richter
10,000 temporarily without power.
Iran: 6.3 Richter
10,000 permanently dead.

"...Dozens of bodies littered the streets of the city"
What killed them if they were in the street ?
I think we should apply the 48 hour(or more)rule.
Posted by: Larry Everett   2003-12-26 7:08:47 PM  

#12  Apparently, neither the California Building Code nor the Code of Hammurabi (see #229) are enforced regularly in Persia
Posted by: Frank G   2003-12-26 5:29:12 PM  

#11  6.7 hits Cal. moderate to heavy damage,nobody dies.
6.7 hits Iran and levels a city 10's of thousands die....Hmmmmmm
Posted by: raptor   2003-12-26 5:15:43 PM  

#10  Are we sure they aren't testing nukes underground?
Posted by: 4thInfVet   2003-12-26 4:33:24 PM  

#9  Fred---your profound comment was the same thought that I had with the comparison between the earthquake in Iran and the other in Paso Robles.

I used to work with USGS in earthquake research in 1970 in the Paso Robles area. Actually in the east on the San Andreas fault starting at Parkfield and heading north through Slack Canyon and up to San Juan Batista. From our regional measurements, slip on the west side of the San Andreas was 30 mm/year north (not west), steady as she goes. Much of the fault NE of paso robles moves along steadily at the surface. You can see it in the fences with up to 3 ft offset in the old ones. But get up to Gilroy and north and the fault locks up. Since 1906 equivalent strain accumulated is about 8 ft! On Roberta Drive in Woodside (just south of San Francisco) there is an old redwood stump on the fault trace that was split in two by the earthquake. The west side was 12 ft farther north than the east side of the stump! Looking at and measuring these aspects of nature was one of the most humbling and interesting jobs I ever had.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-12-26 4:15:26 PM  

#8  Iran has all this oil wealth, and rather than do such non-glamorous tasks such as updating building codes and retrofitting buildings, they decide to break the bank by building nuclear reactors and uranium concentrating facilities.

Another successful paradigm by the Black Turbans. Too bad people in Iran do not look inward and boot their asses out of power. What will it take?
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2003-12-26 4:01:20 PM  

#7  Israel offer any help just to tweak the blackhats?
Posted by: Frank G   2003-12-26 2:33:54 PM  

#6  Reuters story update snippet:
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told Reuters Iran urgently sought sniffer dogs, blankets and medicines from the international community.
After recent big shake in [Izmit '99?] Turkey the Muslim street didn't want sniffer dogs. Thought they'd eat their dead. Have they wised up any?

... many other thoughts best left to your imagination. Complicated.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-26 1:46:50 PM  

#5  Allah have a bad day yesterday?
Posted by: tu3031   2003-12-26 12:00:44 PM  

#4  Hope it got some of their al-Q guests.
Posted by: BH   2003-12-26 11:39:08 AM  

#3  One would think that naming a town in a known quake area "Bam" would preordain it getting it by an earthquake... that's like naming a town at the bottom of a mountain "Flatten"
Posted by: Frank G   2003-12-26 10:42:39 AM  

#2  Trailer of al-Reuters sally:
"Most people think what God wills, will happen. This is absolutely wrong. This thinking is poisonous," said Bahram Akasheh, professor of geophysics at Tehran University.
He doesn't sound very Islamist. I think he was supposed to blame it on Israelis. Wonder if he'll get a talking-to.
Posted by: Glenn (not Reynolds)   2003-12-26 2:27:23 AM  

#1  Do we kill them with kindness by sending aid to the region?
Posted by: eLarson   2003-12-26 1:22:33 AM  

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