AmeriCares Already Responding to Deadly Earthquake in India

AmeriCares Foundation
Friday, 26 January 2001

AmeriCares, the national and international humanitarian aid organization, announced that it is responding to the catastrophic earthquake in India's Gujarat state.

Additional information regarding AmeriCares response will be disseminated as relief efforts become finalized.

The earthquake occurred while an AmeriCares project director for India was visiting one of AmeriCares' long-term healthcare programs in southwest India. He is currently en route to Ahmedabad to collaborate with local emergency authorities.

Many of the surviving victims are in desperate need of medical attention. The Press Trust of India put the death toll at over 500. It quoted a spokesman of the home department of Gujarat, which bore the brunt of the quake, as saying that at least 200 people had died in the city of Ahmedabad alone. The death toll is expected to rise, as many people are still buried under debris. The earthquake measured 7.9 on the Richter scale by the U.S. Geological Survey and was felt as far away as Nepal in the north, Pakistan to the east and Madras to the south, when it hit early in the morning as India prepared to celebrate Republic Day.

For more information, or to contact AmeriCares Foundation, see their website at: www.americares.org