By Maria Abraham
 Full
Scale Disaster Relief Underway In India
BHUJ, India
(Reuters) - Relief workers raced to clear rubble and dig out decaying
bodies across quake-hit Gujarat on Wednesday as the danger of
disease hung over tens of thousands of survivors.
Officials
warned there was a real threat of illnesses bred by the unhygienic
conditions of post-quake life on the street as many survivors
camped for a sixth night under the stars. ''There's a risk people
can get diarrheal diseases such as gastroenteritis and water contaminated
with bacteria can also cause typhoid and cholera,'' Red Cross
official Patrick Fuller told Reuters.
Aid from around
the world poured into Gujarat in western India where the quake
struck with brute force last Friday, claiming upwards of 24,000
lives.
Tens of thousands
more were believed injured and hundreds of thousands left homeless
by the quake which registered 7.9 on the Richter scale.
About 20,000
Indian soldiers were joined by relief teams from Britain, France,
Russia, Switzerland and Turkey. The United States sent a plane
loaded with water purification equipment and even arch-foe Pakistan
airlifted tents and blankets.
Buzzed With
Activity
Bhuj airport
was a hive of activity as a succession of freight planes carrying
generators, tents, tarpaulin sheets and mobile hospitals flew
in.
At an emergency
field hospital set up by the Israeli army in the devastated town
of Bhuj, a baby girl born three months premature was fighting
for her life.
Doctors appealed
for a specially equipped helicopter with an incubator on board
to fly the baby, nicknamed "Israela,'' to a hospital in Bombay
for treatment.
"The
risks are great,'' said Dr. Jacob Kuint, who was looking after
the tiny infant. "She can make it if she can be transferred
to a place with all other facilities that we don't have.''
Doctors said
the baby, who weighed around 2lb (1 kg), was receiving intravenous
fluids and antibiotics but ran a risk of infection in the makeshift
hospital.
Estimates
of the number of dead varied on Wednesday as officials said no
one knew yet how many people were buried under the carpet of rubble
across the devastated state.
Toll May Be
Exaggerated
The state
government estimated the death toll at 24,000 to 25,000. "Anything
more than that looks quite exaggerated,'' said P.K. Laheri, principal
secretary to the state chief minister.
But that was
far below Defense Minister George Fernandes' estimate of 100,000
earlier in the week which he called a worst-case scenario.
Bob McKerrow,
from the International Red Cross, said reports from the region
suggested a death toll of some 50,000.
In the village
of Lodai, near the epicenter of Friday's monster quake, a doctor
reported nine people had fallen ill, a likely result of drinking
contaminated water.
Like many
people in remote spots devastated by the quake, villagers in Lodai
said the relief operation was not reaching them. Without shelter,
they sat under the blazing sun by day and slept in the chilly
streets by night.
"We get
food but there is no water to drink. We have no shelter over our
heads and it is very cold at night,'' said laborer Haji Abdullah.
Sickness Inevitable
The Red Cross
said it had reports of people getting sick with diarrhea.
"It's
inevitable in a situation like this when there is no running water
when you have kids playing in the rubble, the carcasses of animals
and dead bodies are around,'' Fuller told Reuters.
A 55-year-old
woman was pulled from the rubble in the main city of Ahmedabad
(news - web sites) in the early hours of Wednesday. The woman
was so badly injured doctors had to amputate both legs and one
arm after her rescue and her survival was in doubt.
But by late
Wednesday, rescuers had all but abandoned hope of finding anyone
else still alive.
Officials
said they were making every effort to ensure food was distributed
evenly and community kitchens were dishing out thousands of meals
to the thousands of homeless.
"At present,
as far as food and medical help are concerned in Bhuj, there is
more than enough,'' said a government official, who asked not
to be named.
"It's
true that in the villages people are going hungry. But I can assure
you that relief is now getting there,'' he said.
Fleeing Quake
Zone
In the commercial
city of Ahmedabad where more than 700 were believed to have died,
people thronged the railway station and the airport seeking to
flee the quake zone, still worried about aftershocks.
"I'm
afraid at the slightest noise,'' said Sudam Behra, a salt worker.
"Whenever there's even a slight movement of wind moving the
leaves it makes people run helter-skelter for their lives.''
Trains that
normally could seat 1,500 people were packed with as many 4,000
passengers riding on top and hanging on the sides.
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