AMER OUALI AND MARC PONDAVEN, Algiers | Monday
THE Algerian government said on Sunday the death toll from fierce storms that swept the country had killed at least 343 people, injured more than 300, and left at least 4 000 families homeless.
Rescuers continued to search in clinging mud and through piles of debris for survivors, as the French government said it was sending a team of around 60 civil defence experts to help their Algerian colleagues.
Many homes collapsed in the havoc caused on Saturday by torrential rain, ferocious winds and mudslides.
More than a kilometre of motorway in the western Frais Vallon district of Algiers had been turned back into the “oued” — or gully — it had been built over in the late 1970s.
Rubble and sand were everywhere.
One witness said that the disaster had hit the region within just minutes, coming with murderous violence. Coaches lay buried in deep mud and rubble and nobody knew whether the passengers had got away alive.
“Suddenly, a four-metre wave just swept up all before it and the oued was back,” the witness said. The wall of water also struck cheap housing built on the hills either side of the motorway.
Army bulldozers were put into action on Sunday to try to clear the route, while civilians looked for missing relatives and neighbours.
The deluge swept vehicles, lamp-posts and trees before it in the capital, where an AFP correspondent saw firefighters and local residents trying in vain to pull a wrecked bus out of the front of a building it had rammed.
Damage was particularly bad in working class Bab El Oued district, where incredulous residents had spent part of the night watching rescue workers tearing at heaps of twisted metal in a bid to reach people in flooded homes.
Piles of vehicles and heaps of corrugated iron which had served for cheap housing materials hindered soldiers and fire crews working under the light of arc-lamps.
After daybreak, more and more people turned out to help overwhelmed rescue workers. “Look at the firemen. They haven’t even got gloves,” said one man as he tried to dig out a car buried with people inside it.
Much of the work was being done by hundreds of youths, swearing and praying as they dug out bodies.
A teacher said that one school’s staff had the “inspired idea” of sending the children home in the storm. “Can you imagine the tragedy it could have been?” he asked. Half-submerged vehicles had ploughed right through the building.
Parts of Algiers lie on hills overlooking the sea. The impact of the storm was such that dozens — perhaps even hundreds — of vehicles were simply swept down on Bab El Oued in just minutes. With them came many corpses.
“I counted nine bodies brought down by the floodwater, but there was nothing I could do,” said a mechanic.
In France, both President Jacques Chirac and the mayor of the Mediterranean port of Marseille, Jean-Claude Gaudin, offered sincere condolences and all the help they could give.
Chirac said that “we’re at your side”, as the government announced that an evaluation team of rescue workers was on its way on Sunday to assess the needs.
Late on Sunday, the French government said it is to send a team of around 60 civil defence experts and aid, including tents, blankets and medical equipment to Algeria.
It said that a cargo plane loaded with 40 tons of aid, would leave for Algeria on Monday.
The civil defence experts, trained to deal with floods, will take with them lightweight pumps and other tools to enable them to help Algerian colleagues clear access and restore as quickly as possible the communication infrastructure in the country, a government press release said.
The Gulf state of Qatar also announced the despatch of relief supplies.
“I’d rather sleep outside than risk being buried alive,” said one Frais Vallon resident who gave his name as Nourredine. More rain has been forecast for Sunday and Monday.
At Tipaza, a town 70 kilometres west of the capital, six people were swept away by water flooding down gullies.
In Oran, a major port 450 kilometres west of Algiers, a young girl was killed when a building collapsed. Two other children drowned at Medea, 80 kilometres south of the capital.
Ironically, the storm began days after the ministry of religious affairs urged that prayers should be said in the country’s mosques asking for rain after weeks of drought. – AFP
ZA*NOW:
Algerians keep an eye on the sky, pray for rain November 6, 2001