Fatal Flash Flooding In Algeria

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

November 14, 2001 / 5:38 PM EST / CBS

Rescuers feared the death toll from Algeria's devastating flash floods could rise to 1,000 -- nearly twice the current official toll -- as emergency teams sifted Wednesday through tons of thick mud and debris.

Another 75 bodies were found between Tuesday night and Wednesday under the mud of the ruined open-air market in the hard-hit district of Oued Koriche, part of the capital's Bab el Oued working class neighborhood, the Civil Defense said.

The official death toll stood at 651 nationwide, including 604 in the capital alone, and 318 injured, according to Interior Ministry figures released by the official APS news agency.

But an unofficial count had at least 693 killed and rescuers and local newspapers said more than 300 people were still reported missing after the North African country's worst floods in four decades, probably buried under mud or washed out to sea.

A Civil Defense officer, asked about the number of missing reported by the media, told Reuters in Bab el Oued: "The figure looks logical given the scale of the disaster, we could easily go above 1,000 deaths in the next few days."

The Interior Ministry said eight people were missing after the floods, Algeria's second worst natural disaster since independence in 1962. An earthquake in 1981 devastated the western city of Chlef, formerly El Asnam, killing 1,500 people.

The torrential, 36-hour downpour began Friday, triggering a mudslide that ripped through several of the hilly capital's working-class neighborhoods, collapsing buildings, blocking roads, overturning vehicles and knocking out power.

The mud was 13 feet deep in the worst hit areas.

Thousands of families were made homeless by the floods, which ironically followed a prolonged drought that had forced water rationing in Algiers since mid-October.

Saturday it rained as much in Algiers in a few hours as it does normally in a whole month at this time of year, meteorologists said. More showers, but with less intensity, were forecast from Wednesday night until Friday.

The lack of adequate heavy equipment and apparent disorganization slowed search and rescue operations.

"How do you want us to work when you have hundreds of people wandering around the (disaster) site," a Civil Defense officer said.

"You don't even have the means to do your job properly," retorted Nadjim, whose grocery shop lay under thick mud.

A Civil Defense official who asked not to be named said Algeria had no sniffer dogs "although we lie in a high-risk area for natural disasters such as earthquakes."

A dog that found two survivors under the rubble Tuesday belonged to a resident.

Young volunteers dug with bare hands to extricate bodies from dried mud rising up to 6 feet high.

"They gave us nothing, not even picks or shovels, so we dig with saucepans and stainless steel plates, or even with our hands," said Abdelghani Rouache, standing next to a huge pile of debris at the Trois Horloges market place.

"There is nlonger hope of finding survivors," Interior Minister Nourredine Yazid said, even as residents and rescue workers continued digging through mounds of mud.

Grief-stricken family members filed through two makeshift morgues - one for the bodies of men, the other for women - set up on the edge of the capital's El Alia cemetery. Coffins were labeled with the barest of details: "young man," "pregnant woman" or "infant."

Hospital emergency rooms have been overwhelmed by the injured and corridors jammed with people searching for relatives. Funeral services were being held continually at the El Alia cemetery and the capital's other big cemetery, El Kettar.

French and Moroccan civil defense teams of 30 officers each joined about 3,000 Algerians in the rescue efforts.

France, the former colonial power, sent a cargo plane with tents, beds and blankets and water purification equipment to provide drinking water for up to 100,000 people a day.

The U.N. World Food Program said it would send tents, water equipment and other aid donated by the Italian government.

Pope John Paul II joined the chorus of those expressing sympathy, sending his condolences to "the dear peoples of Algeria."

"While I entrust to the generous mercy of God all those who have tragically died, I express my spiritual closeness to their families and to all who suffer because of the grave calamity," the pope said Wednesday.

The Kuwaiti-based Arab Social and Economic Development Fund offered $1 million in emergency help, the APS news agency reported.

The government declared three days of national mourning from Tuesday, but many stricken residents had only harsh words for its perceived slow response to the disaster.

For the second day in a row, dozens of angry youths whose families were affected by the floods took to the streets of Algiers shouting anti-government slogans, newspapers reported.

Residents and urban experts said the disaster was made worse by the closure of underground sewage ducts three years ago after authorities found they were used as hide-outs by Islamic insurgents who have been fighting the government since 1992.

But a city official denied this.

Drains in Bab el Oued, home to hundreds of thousands of people, were regularly maintained, Mohamed Ouchene, Algiers City Council secretary general, told national television, according to APS.

"Assertions to the contrary are biased," he said.