January 15, 2001/ El Salvador -
After the powerful earthquake in El Salvador on Saturday, Action
by Churches Together (ACT) has started creating shelter for the victims.
At the same time US $50,000 were released for a rapid response to the disaster.
The earthquake is estimated to have killed more than 400 people, while
about 800 are injured and 1300 missing.
ACT members in El Salvador, Lutheran
World Federation (LWF) and the Salvadoran Lutheran Church have sent emergency
teams to the most affected areas. Yesterday the Lutheran church opened
two refugee centers: one in Santa Tecla for 300, another in San Salvador
for 3000 people. Food, blankets and mattresses are being distributed to
the refugees as they arrive to the centres. ACT members are also carrying
out joint actions with other international organizations, such as International
Plan and Medicos del Mundo and World Food Program (WFP).
An earthquake of the magnitude of 7.9 on the Richter Scale occurred on January 13 at 11:33 am local time. The most affected area was the city of Santa Tecla in San Salvador's metropolitan area, where a hillside collapsed and buried 500 houses. National police estimate that 4,692 houses were destroyed and 16,148 damaged. The death toll could rise, because there is little chance to find more survivors under the debris left by the earthquake.
According to Rudelmar Bueno di Fario, the LWF representative in El Salvador, the area near the epicenter of the earthquake in the western part of the country, is completely cut off because all the roads are blocked. Some towns in the area are totally destroyed and people lack food and drinking water. Afterquakes are continuing today and people leave their houses because of the violence of the tremors.
ACT is an alliance comprising about 200 protestant and orthodox churches and aid agencies supporting people in emergencies worldwide. The ACT Coordinating Office is based in Geneva with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF).
For further information please contact:
ACT Communications Officers Nils Carstensen
(mobile/cell phone +41 79 358 3171)
or
ACT Press Officer Rainer Lang (mobile/cell phone + 41 79 681 1868).
ACT is a worldwide network of churches and related agencies meeting human need through coordinated emergency response.
The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
ACT Web Site address: http://www.act-intl.org
ACT International
150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Tel:41 22 791 6033 - Fax:41 22 791 6506
e-mail: act@act-intl.org