Woman, 97, Rescued From Rubble

Alive And Well, 8 Days After Iran Quake; Death Toll Hits 35,000

(AP)  Rescue workers pulled a 97-year-old woman out of the rubble, more than a week after an earthquake razed this city, killing at least 35,000 people. Officials say the woman not only survived, but also was unhurt.

"God kept me alive," Sharbanou Mazandarani told her rescuers.

Lying on a bed in a makeshift hospital in Bam, covered to her chin with a blue blanket and a brown print scarf tied around her head, Mazandarani asked for a cup of tea - and then complained it was too hot to drink.

Rescue workers said Sharbanou Mazandarani was saved by furniture that protected her from falling masonry and provided her with space, the Associated Press Television News reported.

Normally people can survive up to three days in the rubble of an earthquake - Mazandarani survived almost nine. There were no details on whether she had food or water while she lay trapped under the ruins.

Sniffer dogs located Mazandarani under a collapsed building and it took three hours of digging to recover her, APTN said.

The official Iranian news agency quoted the Red Crescent Society as saying she was 97.

"No one expected her to be alive. It's a miracle," provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh told The Associated Press.

The death toll from the Dec. 26 quake had risen to about 35,000, Brig. Gen. Hoseyn Fat'ahi of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps told Iran's official news agency. He said the injured numbered 17,000.

Figures for the overall dead have varied according to differing estimates of the number of bodies still under the rubble and thousands of unregistered burials.

A situation report by the U.N. Disaster Assessment Coordination Team warned that many survivors were suffering from psychological disorders after the deaths of their loved ones and the destruction of their homes.

"Post-traumatic stress disorder is highly prevalent," the U.N. report said. On Friday the U.S. field hospital operated on a young Iranian soldier who tried to commit suicide by shooting himself after discovering the quake had wiped out his family.

"If we don't pay the best attention to this, it will lead to more cases of depression, suicide and other mental health problems," said Dr. Mohammad Farojpour, the head of Kerman province's mental health department.

French and German aid groups were flying in a total of 130 psychologists and psychiatrists to counsel survivors, the U.N. report said. The Iranian Red Crescent Society has already deployed 40 women counselors to Bam.

The 6.6-magnitue quake damaged beyond repair as much as 85 percent of Bam's houses and buildings, the report said. Camps of tents with heating are being erected around the city, U.N. officials said. Up to now, the homeless have been living in unheated tents set up amid the ruins.

Farojpour said that among the many things disrupted by the quake was the supply of opium to the city's addicts. Before the temblor, an estimated 20 percent of people over the age of 15 in a population of 80,000 were believed to be addicted.

Methadone, codeine and sterile syringes were being given to drug addicts, Farojpour said.

The United Nations plans to complete within four days an assessment of the city's needs for water, sanitation, food and shelter. The facts are to be presented in an appeal to international donors.

At least five or six countries, including the United States, are working on the review with the United Nations.

Bill Garvelink, head of the USAID team in Bam, has said the destruction was worse than any quake-zone he had ever seen.

"It's incredible," Garvelink said. "Bam is literally a rubble pile. I haven't seen any business functioning and you don't see anybody living in their homes."

On Friday, Iran's state radio, which is controlled by conservatives, accused President Bush of interference in Iran. Mr. Bush had said he was glad Iran accepted U.S. assistance, but its government must embrace democratic freedoms and turn over its detainees from the al Qaeda terror group. Iran says its handling of the al Qaeda detainees is an internal matter.

The U.S. team in Bam has been generally well received by local doctors and residents. Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since militants seized the U.S. Embassy in the Iranian capital in 1979.