Brief Incident Report
Within eleven minutes on 11 August 2012, twin earthquakes measured 6.3 and 6.4 on the Richter scale jolted Ahar and Varzaqan in northwestern Iran, claiming 300 lives and leaving thousands of injured in rural villages.12 The magnitude of the earthquakes was so immense that more than a hundred villages were 70-90% destroyed, while 20 being totally flattened. The primary estimations were suggestive of low number of casualties compared to the last major earthquakes that have recently happened in Iran. This could be attributed to the incident happening in the middle of the day when men had been working their fields.
The official rescue operations started after the event searching for the victims trapped under the rubble and providing emergency shelters for the survivors. However, people from the unaffected neighboring towns arrived much earlier to offer their assistance to their compatriots. Nonetheless, the death toll increased as the rescuers failed to reach the areas which were inaccessible by road and to dig the victims out of rubble in the entirely-leveled areas.
Thanks to the early establishment of triage team consisting of experienced medical staff, 961 severely injured were transferred to and underwent life-saving operations in the nearest referral hospitals in Tabriz, the capital of East Azerbaijan Province, of which 38 died.
Despite making all humanly possible attempts, there were some shortcomings and lessons to be learned for future natural disasters.
The initial shock has now abated, though precautionary measures are still required to be taken especially considering the forthcoming cold season.
Funding Statement
None.
Competing Interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Corresponding Author
Please direct correspondence to Dr. Samad EJ Golzari: [email protected]
References
- Golzari SE, Ghabili K. Recent twin earthquakes in northwest Iran: infectious concerns. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Sep 25. PubMed PMID:23011148.
- Golzari SE, Ghabili K. Twin earthquakes in northwest Iran. Lancet. 2012 Oct 20;380(9851):1384. PubMed PMID:23084451.
- Qiantori A, Sutiono AB, Hariyanto H, Suwa H, Ohta T. An emergency medical communications system by low altitude platform at the early stages of a natural disaster in Indonesia. J Med Syst. 2012 Feb;36(1):41-52. PubMed PMID:20703750.
- Stuart JJ, Johnson DC. Air Force disaster response: Haiti experience. J Surg Orthop Adv. 2011 Spring;20(1):62-6. PubMed PMID:21477536.
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