- Moroccan Rescue Teams Prioritize Search for Earthquake Survivors
- Critical “Golden Period” for Finding Survivors After Earthquake
- Challenges and Factors Affecting Earthquake Rescue Efforts
Rescuers in Morocco will be prioritizing buildings where it’s most likely survivors will be discovered, a search and rescue expert says.
Rescue teams in Morocco are racing against a rapidly expiring “golden period” to locate survivors.
Mark Scorer has witnessed the aftermath of multiple earthquakes in his capacity as an engineer and manager of rescue operations for SARAID – Search and Rescue Assistance in Disasters.
As the hours pass after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake, rescuers will prioritize structures with the highest likelihood of containing survivors, he said.
They will search for buildings with “survivable voids” created by the collapse.
Twelve days after the earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this year, survivors were extracted from the wreckage.
However, during the first 72 hours after a quake, the likelihood of people being rescued is greatest; “after that, the chances diminish,” according to Mr. Scorer.
We are now well into the golden period, during which the likelihood of discovering individuals alive decreases.
Time is not the only factor that dictates the probability of survival. In order to avoid dehydration, Mr. Scorer stressed the importance of water access and temperature.
Rescuers will rely on local knowledge; residents will be aware of the priority areas and may have heard sounds or banging.
Dogs or a crew may quickly search to “see if you get a hit” before excavating the wreckage.
Landslides and rockfalls have rendered much of the mountainous region inaccessible, isolating a number of the villages at the epicenter.
The elevation of the Atlas Mountains is more than the highest point in the UK, Mr Scorer said.
Teams may be restricted to smaller vehicles and lesser equipment as a result of access restrictions.
Morocco has not officially requested foreign assistance, so SARAID has not been deployed. However, according to Mr. Scorer, they could be called up within the next 12 to 24 hours.
Morocco needed to coordinate the rescue efforts, he said, because “they know the terrain.”
Jan Campbell-Wood, a volunteer international responder with RE: ACT, stated that Morocco’s delay in requesting assistance was “understandable” given the time required to assess the situation.
“You must recognize the right of sovereign nations to make their own decisions”.
Everyone wants to act as quickly as possible to assist the people in such a terrible situation. But we have to be careful not to impose what we believe should occur.
People should determine what they want our assistance with.
In a sign that Morocco may be willing to accept more assistance from abroad, the Spanish military announced on Sunday that it had dispatched an air force plane transporting a search and rescue team of 56 soldiers and four dogs to Marrakech.
UN officials in Morocco are discussing global relief options with Moroccan leaders.
