Friday, December 26, 2003
TEHRAN, Iran — A devastating mangitude 6.7 earthquake (search) rattled Bam, a historic city in southeast Iran (search) on Friday, and officials said the final death toll may top 10,000.
State television put the initial death toll at 4,000 people and said another 30,000 were injured. "This is only an initial statistic," the television said.
Hasan Khoshrou, a legislator for Kerman province where the quake occurred, said officials working in Bam had told him 10,000 may be dead.
"The quake hit the city when most of the people were in bed, raising fears that the death toll may go higher," he said.
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey (search) reported the quake's magnitude was 6.7, capable of causing severe damage. It reported an aftershock of magnitude 5.4 about two hours later.
Authorities in Bam, 630 miles southeast of the capital Tehran (search), put out a call for blood donations.
"Many people have died," Kerman province Gov. Mohammad Ali Karimi told state media. "Many people are buried under the rubble."
Relief teams set up their headquarters in a public square in Bam because their offices in the governor's building had been ruined, Karimi told state radio.
Karimi said worried relatives from surrounding areas were heading to Bam and causing massive traffic jams that were slowing rescue efforts. He urged them to stay home and wait until phone service was restored to try to find relatives.
Reports said the earthquake destroyed Bam's medieval fortress, a massive, 2,000-year-old structure that sits on a cliff near the city and attracts thousands of tourists each year. The fortress includes scores of ancient mud huts.
"The historic quarter of the city has been completely destroyed and caused great human loss," said Mehran Nourbakhsh, chief spokesman for Iran's Red Crescent, the Islamic equivalent of the Red Cross.
Authorities have sent numerous rescue workers with helicopters to the area, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
"We are doing everything we can to rescue the injured and unearth the dead," television quoted Karimi as saying.
The United Nations disaster management team in Tehran has asked the Iranian government if it needs help and was to meet later Friday to assess the situation, said Elizabeth Byrs, Geneva spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
She said there had been no request from Tehran so far.
Roy Probert, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said the umbrella group also has had no requests. Probert said the Iranian Red Crescent is well-prepared for earthquakes.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences over the earthquake.
In a telegram to Iranian President Mohamed Khatami, Putin said he was "deeply shocked by an earthquake in Iran that brought numerous victims and destruction" and offered his "sincere condolences to the leadership and people of Iran."
Russian Emergency Situations Ministry spokeswoman Marina Ryklina said that two Il-76 transport aircraft with rescue workers and equipment were to leave for Iran later Friday.
Hardly any buildings in Iran are built to withstand earthquakes, although the country sits on several major faultlines and temblors are frequent. An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 to 7.7 killed 50,000 people on June 21, 1990, and most recently, a magnitude 6 quake in June, 2002 killed 500 people.
Also Friday, a magnitude 4 quake rocked the west Iranian town of Masjid Soleiman at 8:10 a.m., but no casualties were immediately reported, state television said. Masjid Soleiman is about 600 miles northwest of Bam.
Iran Earthquake
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chadtm80
Iran Earthquake
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streetsoldier
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chadtm80
There were only 80,000 in the town.. So that means half the town killed.. Sooooo Sad
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janswizard
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And even sadder, Iran is refusing help from Isreal. How sad.
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a ... E_ID=36345
http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.a ... E_ID=36345
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AussieMark
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Iran's Leader Vows to Rebuild After Quake
BAM, Iran - Iran's supreme leader pledged Monday to rebuild the earthquake-shattered ancient city of Bam, as one foreign search team called off its rescue efforts, saying it was finding no more signs of life amid the rubble.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the devastated city, where more than 21,000 people have died, and told hundreds of victims gathered in the street that he shared their grief.
"I've come here to express my condolences and tell you that I share your grief at the beloved ones who have died," he said.
"All of us are responsible to meet the demands of the survivors," Khamenei said. "Aid should continue to come so that, God willing, the city of Bam is rebuilt better and this time stronger than before. We can build a strong and developed city out of this devastation."
Before he spoke, two strong aftershocks set off a wave of panic and caused some of the few remaining buildings to collapse. Mud bricks tumbled to the ground in the ancient citadel, raising a cloud of dust that hovered over the ruins for at least 15 minutes.
President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) was expected to arrive later Monday.
More than 21,000 bodies have been retrieved since Friday's 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the city and surrounding region in southeast Iran, according to provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh.
"Many, many more people remain buried under the rubble, increasing fears of a much greater death toll at the end," Iranmanesh said.
Some officials have expressed fears that the death toll could rise as high as 40,000.
Hopes of finding more survivors faded as sunrise Monday marked 72 hours since the quake hit, entombing thousands of sleeping residents in their homes. Experts say 72 hours is generally the longest people can survive if they are trapped in rubble.
Rescue workers from around the world have joined Iranians in searching through powdery debris that left little room for air pockets, which could allow people to survive while awaiting help.
Germany's THW government aid agency called off its search for survivors of the earthquake, spokesman Nicolas Hefner said Monday.
Hefner said there were no longer any signals such as knocking sounds to be heard, and no more indications from local people of possible survivors.
But Eric Soupra, spokesman for the French team, said rescuers must continue searching despite the fading chances of finding survivors.
"There have been miracles in earthquakes before, in other cities, in other countries, and so we must continue searching," he told France's RTL radio.
The Italian team also planned to continue searching all day.
"Even if the lengthy amount of time that has passed since the quake doesn't inspire optimism, we still haven't definitively abandoned hope of finding survivors," said Agostino Miozzo, head of the Italian civil protection corps and coordinator of the European aid response team in Bam.
But only one man was pulled alive from the rubble Sunday, Iranmanesh said. A day earlier, officials reported freeing 150 survivors.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said Sunday that the search for survivors would probably end Monday night.
Ted Pearn, coordinator of U.N. relief operations in Bam, said 1,400 international relief workers were in Bam, part of 35 teams from 26 countries.
Planes from dozens of countries have landed in the provincial capital of Kerman with relief supplies, volunteers and dogs trained to find bodies and survivors.
U.S. military C-130 cargo planes were among them, despite long-severed diplomatic relations and President Bush (news - web sites)'s characterization of Iran as being part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq (news - web sites) and North Korea (news - web sites).
The traditional sun-dried, mud-brick construction of the houses doomed many occupants, as it has for centuries in quake-prone Iran. Heavy roofs, often sealed with cement or plaster to keep out rain, sit atop mud-brick walls that have no support beams. When walls crumble, roofs smash down, leaving few air pockets and crushing or suffocating anyone inside.
Mostafa Biderani and his wife, Zahra Nazari, wept in front of a destroyed police station in the center of Bam, slapping their faces and beating their chests in an Islamic expression of grief.
"I pulled my son out of the rubble this morning," said Biderani, who drove from Isfahan, 470 miles to the northwest. "But all my hopes were dashed when I saw the police station had collapsed. I pulled out my son with my bare hands.
Bam was best known for its medieval citadel, considered the world's largest surviving mud fortress. Most of the 2,000-year-old fortress, including a massive square tower, crumbled like a sand castle when the quake hit.
BAM, Iran - Iran's supreme leader pledged Monday to rebuild the earthquake-shattered ancient city of Bam, as one foreign search team called off its rescue efforts, saying it was finding no more signs of life amid the rubble.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the devastated city, where more than 21,000 people have died, and told hundreds of victims gathered in the street that he shared their grief.
"I've come here to express my condolences and tell you that I share your grief at the beloved ones who have died," he said.
"All of us are responsible to meet the demands of the survivors," Khamenei said. "Aid should continue to come so that, God willing, the city of Bam is rebuilt better and this time stronger than before. We can build a strong and developed city out of this devastation."
Before he spoke, two strong aftershocks set off a wave of panic and caused some of the few remaining buildings to collapse. Mud bricks tumbled to the ground in the ancient citadel, raising a cloud of dust that hovered over the ruins for at least 15 minutes.
President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) was expected to arrive later Monday.
More than 21,000 bodies have been retrieved since Friday's 6.6-magnitude earthquake shook the city and surrounding region in southeast Iran, according to provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh.
"Many, many more people remain buried under the rubble, increasing fears of a much greater death toll at the end," Iranmanesh said.
Some officials have expressed fears that the death toll could rise as high as 40,000.
Hopes of finding more survivors faded as sunrise Monday marked 72 hours since the quake hit, entombing thousands of sleeping residents in their homes. Experts say 72 hours is generally the longest people can survive if they are trapped in rubble.
Rescue workers from around the world have joined Iranians in searching through powdery debris that left little room for air pockets, which could allow people to survive while awaiting help.
Germany's THW government aid agency called off its search for survivors of the earthquake, spokesman Nicolas Hefner said Monday.
Hefner said there were no longer any signals such as knocking sounds to be heard, and no more indications from local people of possible survivors.
But Eric Soupra, spokesman for the French team, said rescuers must continue searching despite the fading chances of finding survivors.
"There have been miracles in earthquakes before, in other cities, in other countries, and so we must continue searching," he told France's RTL radio.
The Italian team also planned to continue searching all day.
"Even if the lengthy amount of time that has passed since the quake doesn't inspire optimism, we still haven't definitively abandoned hope of finding survivors," said Agostino Miozzo, head of the Italian civil protection corps and coordinator of the European aid response team in Bam.
But only one man was pulled alive from the rubble Sunday, Iranmanesh said. A day earlier, officials reported freeing 150 survivors.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari said Sunday that the search for survivors would probably end Monday night.
Ted Pearn, coordinator of U.N. relief operations in Bam, said 1,400 international relief workers were in Bam, part of 35 teams from 26 countries.
Planes from dozens of countries have landed in the provincial capital of Kerman with relief supplies, volunteers and dogs trained to find bodies and survivors.
U.S. military C-130 cargo planes were among them, despite long-severed diplomatic relations and President Bush (news - web sites)'s characterization of Iran as being part of an "axis of evil" with Iraq (news - web sites) and North Korea (news - web sites).
The traditional sun-dried, mud-brick construction of the houses doomed many occupants, as it has for centuries in quake-prone Iran. Heavy roofs, often sealed with cement or plaster to keep out rain, sit atop mud-brick walls that have no support beams. When walls crumble, roofs smash down, leaving few air pockets and crushing or suffocating anyone inside.
Mostafa Biderani and his wife, Zahra Nazari, wept in front of a destroyed police station in the center of Bam, slapping their faces and beating their chests in an Islamic expression of grief.
"I pulled my son out of the rubble this morning," said Biderani, who drove from Isfahan, 470 miles to the northwest. "But all my hopes were dashed when I saw the police station had collapsed. I pulled out my son with my bare hands.
Bam was best known for its medieval citadel, considered the world's largest surviving mud fortress. Most of the 2,000-year-old fortress, including a massive square tower, crumbled like a sand castle when the quake hit.
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AussieMark
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This shows that immense devastationa and casualties can occur from even a moderate sized earthquake.
I have heard of reports of 6.3 and as high as 6.7 on the Richter Scale from this quake.
I am scared to imagine the damage if the quake was of 7 or greater as this part of the world do get quakes that strong. They are not rare occurances.
Remember for every point on the scale i.e 7.0 is 10 times as powerful as a 6.0 earthquake and releases from memory about 32 times as much energy.
I have heard of reports of 6.3 and as high as 6.7 on the Richter Scale from this quake.
I am scared to imagine the damage if the quake was of 7 or greater as this part of the world do get quakes that strong. They are not rare occurances.
Remember for every point on the scale i.e 7.0 is 10 times as powerful as a 6.0 earthquake and releases from memory about 32 times as much energy.
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rainstorm
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stormraiser
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stormraiser
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Uh, sorry. Hit enter too quickly. Anyway, here's the story.
Dead Mother's Embrace Saves Iranian Baby's Life
By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
Monday, December 29, 2003; 1:55 PM
BAM, Iran, Dec 29 - A baby girl cradled in her dead mother's arms was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Bam, officials said on Monday -- a rare moment of joy amid the devastation of Iran's earthquake.
Red Crescent aid officials told Reuters the mother's protective embrace had shielded six-month-old Nassim from falling debris and saved her life.
The rest of her family, which officials said included sisters and brothers, were found dead.
Details of Nassim's recovery are still sketchy.
One Red Crescent Society official said the girl was discovered on Monday a full 72 hours after the quake, but rescue officials and state television later said she had been found after 37 hours.
"She is alive because of her mother's embrace," Hessamoddin Farrokhyar, Red Crescent public relations deputy director in Tehran, told Reuters. "The baby girl is in good condition considering the circumstances."
He said the girl was found in the southern part of Bam. It was not clear how she survived without food or water. Temperatures at night have been bitterly cold.
Iranian state television also reported Nassim's rescue, a sliver of hope on an otherwise bleak day when the death toll climbed towards 30,000.
"The baby girl was found after 37 hours by rescue teams," state television reported. "Unfortunately her mother was dead and she is the only one left alive in her whole family in that house."
The world's most lethal quake in at least 10 years laid waste most of Bam's mud brick buildings in seconds.
Officials have warned the death toll, which is now officially 25,000, could reach 30,000.
The quake which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale struck before dawn as people slept.
On Saturday night, rescuers found a young boy alive under the rubble, but he suffocated as people rushed forward to dig him free.
"We found a seven-year-old boy alive," said Austrian rescue worker Sabine Seichtinger. "The crowd rushed to the scene. But the boy choked and then died."
The search for children -- and the recovery of their broken lifeless bodies -- has provoked particular grief in Iran, with the media capturing heart-breaking images such as one of a man carrying the corpses of his two young sons over his shoulders and burying them together in a small grave.
Reuters
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Dead Mother's Embrace Saves Iranian Baby's Life
By Parisa Hafezi
Reuters
Monday, December 29, 2003; 1:55 PM
BAM, Iran, Dec 29 - A baby girl cradled in her dead mother's arms was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in Bam, officials said on Monday -- a rare moment of joy amid the devastation of Iran's earthquake.
Red Crescent aid officials told Reuters the mother's protective embrace had shielded six-month-old Nassim from falling debris and saved her life.
The rest of her family, which officials said included sisters and brothers, were found dead.
Details of Nassim's recovery are still sketchy.
One Red Crescent Society official said the girl was discovered on Monday a full 72 hours after the quake, but rescue officials and state television later said she had been found after 37 hours.
"She is alive because of her mother's embrace," Hessamoddin Farrokhyar, Red Crescent public relations deputy director in Tehran, told Reuters. "The baby girl is in good condition considering the circumstances."
He said the girl was found in the southern part of Bam. It was not clear how she survived without food or water. Temperatures at night have been bitterly cold.
Iranian state television also reported Nassim's rescue, a sliver of hope on an otherwise bleak day when the death toll climbed towards 30,000.
"The baby girl was found after 37 hours by rescue teams," state television reported. "Unfortunately her mother was dead and she is the only one left alive in her whole family in that house."
The world's most lethal quake in at least 10 years laid waste most of Bam's mud brick buildings in seconds.
Officials have warned the death toll, which is now officially 25,000, could reach 30,000.
The quake which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale struck before dawn as people slept.
On Saturday night, rescuers found a young boy alive under the rubble, but he suffocated as people rushed forward to dig him free.
"We found a seven-year-old boy alive," said Austrian rescue worker Sabine Seichtinger. "The crowd rushed to the scene. But the boy choked and then died."
The search for children -- and the recovery of their broken lifeless bodies -- has provoked particular grief in Iran, with the media capturing heart-breaking images such as one of a man carrying the corpses of his two young sons over his shoulders and burying them together in a small grave.
Reuters
Full Legal Notice
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ColdFront77
rainstorm wrote:so cal just had a similar quake with very little damage and 2? deaths. many parts of the world are disasters waiting to happen. thanks for our building codes
The epicenter of the Monday, December 22nd earthquake that occurred in Cambria, California was away from a populated area, hence there wasn't has many injuries and deaths.
It is true that the causalities would of been much lower if Iran had stronger buildings.
Last edited by ColdFront77 on Tue Dec 30, 2003 12:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
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AussieMark
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because of the strict building codes in western United States deaths will be kept to a minimum especially after the lessons that were learnt from the Lompa Pieta Eathquake (October 17, 1989 7.1) and the Northridge quake (January 17, 1994 6.7) even though these quakes did not cause as many deaths as what happened in Iran they were of similar magnitude if u aceept the 6.7 rating of the quake.
Like the United States has spent a lot of money in fixing up the infrastrucure in being able to survive a quake. Seattle is a perfect example of this. Seattle has often being talked about as a place where a big one could potentially strike and when a 6 point tremmor struck Seattle they got off relatrively scott free there was none of that tremendos damage or deaths that had been written about and this is all due to building codes being brought up to scratch.
The big earthquake wake up call that the word received was Kobe a year to the day after Northridge and of comparable intensity Northridge was 6.7 Kobe was 7.2 and a lot more deadly and expensive.
Kobe officially killed 5,000 people and cost about $100 Billion which is a lot from a industrialised and earthquake concious country like Japan which had been pouring all the money into protecting Tokyo as tokyo is the main place that could really destroy the world finanically if it was crippled by a massive earthquake.
A earthquake of the intensity comparable to the 1923 Quake could cost $1 Trillion and make Kobe's damage bill look like chicken feed.
What i am saying is that building codes have to improve in the short term globally otherwise the effects are going to be felt worldwide.
Like the United States has spent a lot of money in fixing up the infrastrucure in being able to survive a quake. Seattle is a perfect example of this. Seattle has often being talked about as a place where a big one could potentially strike and when a 6 point tremmor struck Seattle they got off relatrively scott free there was none of that tremendos damage or deaths that had been written about and this is all due to building codes being brought up to scratch.
The big earthquake wake up call that the word received was Kobe a year to the day after Northridge and of comparable intensity Northridge was 6.7 Kobe was 7.2 and a lot more deadly and expensive.
Kobe officially killed 5,000 people and cost about $100 Billion which is a lot from a industrialised and earthquake concious country like Japan which had been pouring all the money into protecting Tokyo as tokyo is the main place that could really destroy the world finanically if it was crippled by a massive earthquake.
A earthquake of the intensity comparable to the 1923 Quake could cost $1 Trillion and make Kobe's damage bill look like chicken feed.
What i am saying is that building codes have to improve in the short term globally otherwise the effects are going to be felt worldwide.
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AussieMark
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Iran Asks 'Why Are Our Earthquakes So Deadly?'
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Poor design, primitive materials and widely ignored building codes were prime causes of the high death rate in the Bam earthquake, Iranian officials and foreign experts said on Tuesday.
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In stark contrast to a tremor of similar strength last week in California that killed just two people, the toll in Friday's Iranian quake could reach about 50,000.
Iran's building codes have been tightened after quakes in recent decades killed tens of thousands. But officials and independent scientists say enforcement is woefully inadequate.
Bahram Akasheh, geophysics professor at Tehran University, noted the California quake on December 22 had almost the same magnitude and depth as the Iranian tremor, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and was centerd 16 km (10 miles) below ground.
"The question is why were only two killed in California but so many in Iran?" he said. "The answer is simple. The type of construction is totally different. There are building codes here but they are not followed. The laws are there, but only in theory. No one pays any attention. No authorities control construction."
President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) said there would be an inquiry and anyone who had violated state codes would be punished. Two hospitals, a prison and other state buildings collapsed or were badly damaged.
"We will investigate the houses which were built in recent years, especially government buildings," Khatami said. "These buildings shouldn't have collapsed. Those who are to blame will be seriously punished."
While Iranian officials keep a close eye on many aspects of daily life, there is little policing of construction.
"I don't think there are any shortcomings with our policies and construction codes," said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's powerful Expediency Council.
"It is the construction managers who do not implement the codes. There is not enough supervision of construction and engineering."
Ali Bakhshi, a civil engineering professor in Tehran, said some builders disregarded the codes to make bigger profits.
MUD-BRICK BLAMED
Fingers are also being pointed at the mud bricks common in towns like Bam. They are cheap and popular because they keep houses cool in summer and warm in winter. But they crumble easily, suffocating many who survive the actual quake.
"In Iran...the houses are essentially made of dust," said Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics in quake-prone Italy. "When buildings made of concrete collapse there are pockets of air where you can breathe and survive two, three, maybe even five days. But with mud houses, and the dust they produce when collapsing, you die much quicker."
But experts say that is only part of the problem. They warn even Tehran, where modern steel-framed concrete buildings are common, would be vulnerable to quakes of around 6.0 on the Richter scale. A reading of at least 7.0 is often seen as the threshold for major loss of life.
With suitable construction methods, cities can survive much greater earthquakes. A tremor measuring 8.0 caused just 500 injuries and no deaths in Japan in September.
"Earthquakes per se are not dangerous, it's how buildings are constructed and the quake's timing that cause deaths," said Boschi. "The Bam quake happened in the morning when people were all still in bed, unconscious and defenseless."
Stavros Joannides, a Cypriot structural engineer who worked in Iran in the 1970s, said mud bricks were not flexible enough.
"Once that elasticity is lost and there is no steel, no reinforced concrete, the building will give," he said. "Without warning. Mud brick doesn't start dropping bits of plaster or brick like a concrete house will. It comes down at once."
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Poor design, primitive materials and widely ignored building codes were prime causes of the high death rate in the Bam earthquake, Iranian officials and foreign experts said on Tuesday.
The Biggest Tech Flops
An unscientific look at the biggest tech blunders ever, plus products before their time and potential flops of tomorrow.
In stark contrast to a tremor of similar strength last week in California that killed just two people, the toll in Friday's Iranian quake could reach about 50,000.
Iran's building codes have been tightened after quakes in recent decades killed tens of thousands. But officials and independent scientists say enforcement is woefully inadequate.
Bahram Akasheh, geophysics professor at Tehran University, noted the California quake on December 22 had almost the same magnitude and depth as the Iranian tremor, which measured 6.3 on the Richter scale and was centerd 16 km (10 miles) below ground.
"The question is why were only two killed in California but so many in Iran?" he said. "The answer is simple. The type of construction is totally different. There are building codes here but they are not followed. The laws are there, but only in theory. No one pays any attention. No authorities control construction."
President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) said there would be an inquiry and anyone who had violated state codes would be punished. Two hospitals, a prison and other state buildings collapsed or were badly damaged.
"We will investigate the houses which were built in recent years, especially government buildings," Khatami said. "These buildings shouldn't have collapsed. Those who are to blame will be seriously punished."
While Iranian officials keep a close eye on many aspects of daily life, there is little policing of construction.
"I don't think there are any shortcomings with our policies and construction codes," said Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's powerful Expediency Council.
"It is the construction managers who do not implement the codes. There is not enough supervision of construction and engineering."
Ali Bakhshi, a civil engineering professor in Tehran, said some builders disregarded the codes to make bigger profits.
MUD-BRICK BLAMED
Fingers are also being pointed at the mud bricks common in towns like Bam. They are cheap and popular because they keep houses cool in summer and warm in winter. But they crumble easily, suffocating many who survive the actual quake.
"In Iran...the houses are essentially made of dust," said Enzo Boschi, president of the National Institute of Geophysics in quake-prone Italy. "When buildings made of concrete collapse there are pockets of air where you can breathe and survive two, three, maybe even five days. But with mud houses, and the dust they produce when collapsing, you die much quicker."
But experts say that is only part of the problem. They warn even Tehran, where modern steel-framed concrete buildings are common, would be vulnerable to quakes of around 6.0 on the Richter scale. A reading of at least 7.0 is often seen as the threshold for major loss of life.
With suitable construction methods, cities can survive much greater earthquakes. A tremor measuring 8.0 caused just 500 injuries and no deaths in Japan in September.
"Earthquakes per se are not dangerous, it's how buildings are constructed and the quake's timing that cause deaths," said Boschi. "The Bam quake happened in the morning when people were all still in bed, unconscious and defenseless."
Stavros Joannides, a Cypriot structural engineer who worked in Iran in the 1970s, said mud bricks were not flexible enough.
"Once that elasticity is lost and there is no steel, no reinforced concrete, the building will give," he said. "Without warning. Mud brick doesn't start dropping bits of plaster or brick like a concrete house will. It comes down at once."
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