Killer quake stupefies authorities into inaction

“Reports of buildings collapsing and people dying were coming from all over. We were just not prepared to deal with a situation like this,” said a senior officer.

Since there was a security alert for Republic Day, the police and fire brigade all over the state were tied down with official functions. In fact, the entire government machinery was tied down with these functions. So, there was no one to take charge of the situation immediately.

After the functions were over, they had little idea of the enormity of the situation because the communication links had gone phut. The absence of communications also came in the way of organising the relief of rescue effort.

Even in a city like Ahmedabad, the fire brigade was left in the dark, with power and the telephone lines dead. By the time they established a sort of communication system of sorts, they were flooded with so many calls that they did not know what to do.

When the Fire Brigade did reach some of the spots, hours after the quake, they were ineffective. It was woefully short of manpower, and did not have concrete cutting equipment, bulldozers and other heavy equipment. Till late in the evening, they were using shovels and crowbars to clear the debris. Incidently, the Fire Brigade is considered the main agency for relief and rescue work in the event of a calamity.

Adding to the problems were the crowds of onlookers, although volunteers tried to maintain some kind of order at many places. The police and the Rapid Action Force was seen at most of the spots only in the evening. “People are trapped, and there are so many curious bystanders hampering rescue operations, but the cops haven’t come to move them out,” said Kinnari Bhatt at the Shikar Apartment.

As hospitals were deluged with calls, there weren’t sufficient ambulances nor medical teams to be rushed for the injured. In spite of the best efforts of the doctors at the V S Hospital and Civil hospital, there was utter chaos. The injured needed blood, and the donors were there, but the blood collection system was painfully slow.

Till late evening, the district administration was unable to find out how many people were buried in the debris of which building. At most places, people complained that senior officers visited the spot only a little before the arrival of Union Home Minister L K Advani to ensure some semblance of order.

Naturally, therefore, Advani, who was accompanied by Union Textiles Minister Kashiram Rana and BJP general secretary Narendra Modi, faced angry crowds when they visited some of the places.

And as it often happens in a crisis, none of the top officials were available to explain this administration’s failure to react to the disaster.