Destructive force of 1988 earthquake was
so swift that people thought the Armenian city had been bombed.
By Ashley Killough in Gyumri (CRS No.
523, 09-Dec-09)
It was 1988. The streets of Gyumri were
cluttered with collapsed buildings. The air was thick with burning dust.
Artyom Tonoyan, a 14-year-old boy, sprinted
through the debris searching for his family, thinking only of his mother,
Julieta, who had been on the city hospital's seventh floor when the massive
earthquake struck this city in western Armenia.
When he got there, the hospital's wing
