In the village of Ouirgane, 48 kilometers south of Marrakech, no one can live in their houses. Over 800 people had to get out of their homes within a few dramatic minutes when the earthquake struck just after midnight on Saturday night. Now people are trying to save what can be saved. A young boy appears in a window. – Here!, he shouts and throws out a couple of bags. Then comes blankets, pillows, clothes, some pots, a small table and finally a bed. The sister stands outside and follows along. – Yes, it will work, she says when news asks. Meriam, as she is called, was at home with the rest of the family when the walls and roof suddenly started shaking. Fortunately, they got out and everyone is safe. Hardly any houses in the village of Ouirgane remain intact. Photo: Marit Kolberg / news Don’t remember anything from the night The earthquake, with its epicenter in the Atlas Mountains and which struck with a magnitude of 6.8, has left houses, roads and entire villages in ruins. Like the Berber village of Ouirgane. Outside what was once a home, Amid and his wife stand. They have been inside and taken out clothes, kitchen equipment and blankets. – Of course it’s dangerous, says Amid. But he adds that they need their cases after all. He remembers nothing of the earthquake itself. – He must have had some sort of shock, says one of the neighbours. A neighbor (th) helps Amid and his wife. Amid remembers nothing from the night the earthquake struck. Photo: news The houses have collapsed. Everyone we meet greets us as we walk between more or less collapsed homes. Periodically, those we meet remind us that we must be careful. In some places, an entire wall is gone. In a couple of places, the entire first floor is completely squashed. A house that used to have three floors now suddenly only has two. Before the earthquake, this house had three floors. Now it is no longer possible to see the first floor, which is completely flattened. Photo: Marit Kolberg / news Aid workers dig intensively at one house. Not all residents have been found here. Both volunteers and aid workers are working hard. It’s a race against time. The hope is to find as many as possible alive. Many died in mountain villages. On the roads, ambulances are constantly driving with sirens. Several helicopters pass over our heads. They have been further up in the mountains, in villages that cannot be reached by car. Many of the dirt roads that wind up the mountainous terrain are blocked by large rocks that have fallen from the rock faces. On Monday afternoon, the death toll rose to 2,681, according to the latest update from Morocco’s Ministry of the Interior. More than 2,500 have been registered as damaged. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a total of 300,000 people in five provinces have been affected by the earthquake, which is the largest in over 100 years in the country. A rescue worker looks up from one of the ruins he and the subject are searching. Photo: HANNAH MCKAY / Reuters Local officials and international aid organizations state that many of the dead have been found in the areas that are most difficult to reach. They believe the death toll will only rise as rescue personnel arrive and slowly but surely dig their way through the rubble. The need for food and water is great. Bread, biscuits and drinks are distributed from minibuses and private cars. The spontaneous flight from their homes and the collapsed houses has also led to many missing the medicines they depend on. – We lack medicine for those with diabetes or high blood pressure. We ask the authorities for help and remind us that today everyone is Moroccan, says one of the residents whom the news agency AP met. A woman has to be carried away after she fainted when she saw who was being dug out of the rubble. In Ouirgane, the vast majority have lost someone after the earthquake. Photo: HANNAH MCKAY / Reuters Waiting for the green light Morocco has so far accepted help from Great Britain, Spain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The Israeli aid organization Rescuers Without Borders is waiting for the go-ahead from the Moroccan authorities to participate in the search. The organization has dogs specially trained to search through collapsed buildings and has worked in a number of disaster areas. – We know that it is very urgent to save people and dig in the ruins, says Arnaud Fraisse, the founder of Rescuers Without Borders to the AP news agency. – There are people who are now dying under the ruins, and we can do nothing to save them, he says. Germany and France have also offered their assistance, but have not yet received a response or request from the Moroccan government. French rescue organizations that collaborate with Moroccan organizations, on the other hand, have arrived in the country and are already starting the search work.
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Risking their lives to get blankets and clothes – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
