Death toll rises in Columbia quake

The toll from Monday's magnitude-6 earthquake in western Colombia reached 878 dead and more than 3,410 injured yesterday, Red Cross spokesperson Maria Perrelet said. That number was expected to rise as more debris was cleared.

Rescue teams arrived from Britain and the United States to help find survivors and pull bodies from hundreds of downed buildings in this city of 300,000 people. Using heavy machinery, rescuers uncovered corpses throughout Armenia, but hope of finding new survivors was dwindling fast.

With need overwhelming available supplies, Armenia's residents took matters into their own hands, breaking down the gates of a downtown supermarket and stealing rice, cooking oil, flour and rum.

Debris fell from the upper reaches of the damaged four-story building housing the store, sending panicked looters fleeing into the street in fear of aftershocks.

In all, 27 aftershocks have struck Colombia since Monday, and a 5.4-magnitude quake rocked the northeast yesterday but caused no damage.

Throughout Armenia, the worst-hit city where more than 500 cadavers have been uncovered, people desperately seeking food, water and clothing formed block-long lines at relief stations. Others jammed the city's main access roads in an attempt to leave.

Victims approached any stranger asking for help.

"You don't know where I can find a doctor?" said Fernando Gomez, who said his children - who have only eaten bread and sugar water since Monday - were suffering from a virus.

The quake devastated a vast area of Colombia's coffee belt. Search and rescue officials say they expect the death toll to eventually exceed 1,000 in the 17 cities, towns and villages rocked by the quake.

This year's Colombian coffee crop - second-largest in the world after Brazil - was not expected to be seriously affected even though several coffee processing plants were damaged, agricultural officials said.

The Health Ministry dispatched workers to fumigate the hardest-hit areas to prevent outbreaks of malaria and to kill rats in debris-strewn sites.

Interior Minister Nestor Humberto Martinez estimated it would cost at least $100 million to rebuild.

While there was bitter disappointment amid the ruins yesterday, a bit of joy emerged. Onlookers cheered and clapped when a 16-year-old boy, David Acevedo, was found alive after spending 44 hours under heavy cement slabs. He drank his own urine to survive, his mother said.

Also rescued from the debris was 65-year-old Jorge Lieser Gomez. "I thank God because I am alive, and that my family is all right," he said.

But the pained voices of two children heard under the debrisone building late Tuesday had gone silent by yesterday morning.

"We are still searching," said Cesar Augusto Giraldo, a Civil Defense rescue worker.

At one flattened apartment building, Jose Noe Lozano looked on as orange-helmeted workers removed slabs of concrete from atop his two sons. A power saw whirred and sparks flew as a man cut through a three-inch slab to reveal the face of 15-year-old Sebastian, his right arm outstretched.

Breathing deeply, Lozano looked at the sky, then dropped his head and shook with sobs.

Sebastian's 10-year-old brother, Hernan, their grandmother and a neighbor had been on the fourth floor of the El Prado apartment building, having lunch when the quake struck. Officials expect to find at least a dozen more bodies in the building's wreckage.

Aid pledges came in from around the world. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world body was prepared to help in any way it could, as did leaders from the United States, Canada, Cuba and other nations.

Dozens of Japanese technicians headed to Armenia to help in recovery efforts, and the United States and Mexico sent search and rescue teams. Russia sent searchers, doctors and aid workers, and the European Union offered more than $1 million in relief.

France and Germany were jointly sending 12 tons of supplies and heavy equipment to remove debris, as well as a 55-member disaster team. Chile and Peru dispatched tons of medicines and supplies.

The government, meanwhile, denounced price hikes in caskets due to the surge in demand, and promised free coffins to any families that needed them.

That grand promise did not pan out on the ground. Relief workers were forced to wrap many of the bodies in black plastic or blankets and leave them on the streets.

"We don't have enough coffins to bury the dead," admitted Quindio state Gov. Henry Gomez.

01-28-99