The elite Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) search and rescue team will be composed of firefighters, doctors, nurses and security personnel and will fly in lifesaving tools to join the search for survivors.
The National Disaster Coordinating Council is currently preparing the deployment of the Philippine contingent, SBMA Chairman Felicito Payumo said in a statement.
SBMA’s E-911 team will be equipped with the Hurst Jaws of Life, a hydraulic machine used to pry metal open with 18,000 pounds of spreading capacity; as well as Hurst airbags that are capable of lifting 70-ton concrete slabs up to 16 inches; cutting tools that can slice through metal plate, and self-contained breathing apparatus.
Up to 70,000 people were killed or injured in Friday’s 6.3-intensity earthquake, Iranian Health Minister Ahmad Pazashkian said.
No Filipinos were reported among the casualties of the Iran quake or the natural gas explosion that killed over 200 people in China, Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Julia Heidemann said.
There were two Filipinos in the part of Iran ravaged by the temblor, but they have been accounted for in the Philippines, where they are on vacation.
Dozens of international relief flights and aid deployments were under way.
In a show of global unity in responding to Iran’s calls for help, nations rich and poor offered tents, blankets, tarpaulins, cooking sets and water purification tablets to Iranians who lost their homes in the ancient city of Bam.
As they scrambled to dole out millions of dollars in aid, foreign donors said they could not help but feel their efforts were insufficient in the face of so much death and devastation.
As one French diplomatic official put it Saturday: "Is what you do ever enough in a catastrophe of this scale?"
Setting aside politics, the Bush administration said Saturday it would send 75 tons of medical supplies and about 200 search and rescue and medical experts. The airlift includes blood, food and other rations delivered in at least a half-dozen cargo planes.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said late Saturday the planes were to leave the United States later in the evening, and arrive in Iran "sometime within the next 24 hours."
The US has not had diplomatic relations with Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and last year, US President George W. Bush said Iran was part of an "axis of evil," along with pre-war Iraq and North Korea.
The quake reduced many of Bam’s mud-brick buildings to rubble and heavily damaged others, leaving thousands of people out on the streets in near-freezing weather. A lack of potable water was a major concern.
Dean Owen, spokesman for Seattle-based aid group World Vision, said it was critical to get aid to Iran quickly, especially water purification tablets to avert a potential outbreak of cholera.
"Time is of the essence," he said. The aid group was hoping to bring in $250,000 worth of supplies and food in the coming days. At the national level Iran welcomed the contributions, although one regional official rejected any assistance from Israel, a longtime nemesis of Iran.
"We welcome assistance from all countries except Israel," said Akbar Alavi, governor of Kerman city, the provincial capital for Bam.
The European Union said it provided $2.85 million in emergency assistance for Iran. Ireland, Norway and Australia pledged more than $1 million.
France was dispatching two military planes carrying about 60 medical experts and some 20 tons of equipment needed to construct a field hospital.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies issued a preliminary appeal for $12.3 million to bring relief assistance. The federation said it would deliver 20,000 family tents, 200,000 blankets, and 400,000 water purification tablets, among other items like electricity generators and kerosene heaters.
Teams from Britain, the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and Turkey were among the first international rescuers to arrive in Iran, and some described the scene as apocalyptic.
Roland Schlachter, the leader of a 10-person Swiss team that arrived in Bam early Saturday, said the chances of turning up survivors were slim.
"The search is very difficult because many houses have completely collapsed," he told Swiss radio. Aid teams were also overwhelmed with the difficulty of coordinating arriving assistance, he said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said it is working with 20 countries that have sent search and rescue teams to Iran: Austria, Belgium, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, Britain and the US.
A UN disaster team has been deployed to Tehran, Kerman and Bam to help coordinate relief efforts, the office said.
Countries with more modest means were looking for ways to contribute.
Optimism
Recovery experts from Britain’s Rapid-UK were to scour rubble from two hospitals and large apartment blocks that were flattened. The British crews used snake-eye cameras, listening devices and carbon dioxide detectors in their search for survivors.
"The weather is not too bad, so if anyone is found trapped, there is a good chance we will get them out," said Rapid-UK director Graham Payne.
Turkey, which suffered deadly earthquakes itself, sent six trucks and five cargo planes carrying 105 rescuers, medicine, food and rescue vehicles into neighboring Iran.
Spain promised $372,600 worth of water purifiers. Eight volunteers from the town of Huelva were on their way to Iran with sniffer dogs in tow, apart from the government aid effort.
"We went independently because the state emergency services waste time, and we have no time to waste," said firefighter Rene Sanchez, one of the members of the Huelva delegation.
President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, Iran’s eastern neighbor, was gathering his ministers to discuss any assistance that the country could provide. "Even if it is not much, we will help them any way we can," he said.
A statement from Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said that as a sign of solidarity, his country was planning to ship tea for victims pulled from the rubble, plus any other aid it could provide. Top tea exporter Sri Lanka was planning similar assistance.
Besides the emergency medical team it sent to quake-hit Iran Saturday and its pledge to provide tents and other commodities in aid, Japan may send its Self-Defense Forces personnel to Iran to help in relief work, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper said.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has asked the foreign ministry and the Defense Agency to study the mission.
Japan is considering using troops to deliver relief supplies, such as tents, and medical services, the Yomiuri said. Japan may also use its navy to transport such items as temporary shelters, it said.
Japan will also offer commodity aid worth a total of $233,640, including blankets, tents, generators and water tanks, the foreign ministry said in a statement Saturday.
Lessons from Gujarat
The Indian state of Gujarat, the last place struck by a massive earthquake, is offering to share the lessons it learned with Iran.
Much of the Gujarat town of Bhuj remains in rubble nearly three years after an earthquake killed an estimated 25,000 people, injured 166,000 others and left one million homeless.
The Jan. 26, 2001 earthquake devastated Bhuj’s historic stone walls, much like the Friday quake damaged the Iranian city of Bam — where a 2,000 year-old citadel, once the largest mud-brick structure in the world, exists now only in history books.
Gujarat authorities have asked New Delhi for permission to send to Iran a team of 23 doctors, firefighters and others who, three years ago, got a crash course in disaster management.
"We did not have adequate resources to cope with the high intensity earthquake in 2001, but, today, we certainly have better search and rescue capacity and would like to help Iran with our expertise," said P.K. Misra, head of the state Disaster Management Authority.
"Iran can benefit from pooling public and private rescue equipment and immediately putting in place mobile or satellite connectivity in the area," said Mihir Bhat, who heads the Disaster Mitigation Institute, a non-government organization based in Gujarat’s business hub of Ahmedabad.
"Pooling of equipment will save costs. Connectivity will reduce rescue time," he said.
Experts in Gujarat said Iranian authorities need to strike a balance in how much time and money they devote immediately to assessing the damage and needs.
Too much assessment, experts said, takes away resources from the immediate search for survivors. But, without it, reconstruction will be even more difficult in the long run.
In Bhuj, the flattened city has needed to be completely laid out again, as municipal records were left in such poor shape.
Only between 30 to 40 percent of the reconstruction work has been completed since the 2001 quake, according to state authorities.
"Property rights, records and maps need to be reorganized in almost all rehabilitation efforts in any old city," said B.R. Balachandra, executive of town planning for Bhuj’s reconstruction.
"Bam will face a similar problem, as it is an old city," he said.
The Indian government, which was also showered with aid offers after the earthquake, has offered to send medical teams and other assistance to Iran. - AFP, AP, Marvin Sy
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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