More than
800 people have been killed
by a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake,
the strongest to hit the North
African nation in more than a century.
So the quake struck late last night.
It centered
high in the mountains
around the tourist
destination of America.
The tremors brought down parts
of historic buildings and homes
and people just ran into the streets.
Look at this video.
Two men
run when they begin to feel the shaking.
And then moments later, you see panic.
People running by
and then rubble falling
where those men were just moments before.
Look at that.
There you go.
There is a rubble falling
nearly
700 people
were reportedly injured in the quake.
And now there is a race
to reach the victims
in the most affected area.
But officials
say rescue teams are struggling
to get to some of these places.
CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us now.
He's following this story.
Ben, we know that this large
earthquake hit at around 11 P.
M local time.
So a lot of people
must have been sleeping.
What are the latest on
the rescue efforts?
And tell us more about these concerns
that more people might be trapped under
the rubble
Yes, from all
accounts, we're
hearing from people on the ground
in that part of Morocco
that those rescue efforts
are moving ahead at a fast pace
because it is believed
there are still many people
under the rubble.
Now, the earthquake struck at 11:13
o'clock Friday evening.
There were many people who were at home,
but also many people were still out
and about.
It's still warm this time of year.
In Morocco.
And you can see from that video
that people were filled in, restaurants
and whatnot,
had to rush out into the streets.
And since that earthquake took place,
there have been at least
a dozen aftershocks.
So many people
are still staying outside for fear
that buildings could collapse.
And what we're hearing
is that
many buildings have collapsed,
not just in Marrakesh itself,
but in the towns and villages
in the High Atlas Mountains.
I've been through that that area before.
It's very rugged and very difficult
for the rescue teams
to reach those areas.
Now, CNN was able to get through
to one woman,
Fatima, who lives in the remote
town of Osney.
What she told us
is that I barely got the chance
to grab the children
and run out
before I saw my house
collapsing in front of my eyes.
The neighbor's house also collapsed.
And she said there are also two dead
people under the rubble.
And in that particular town,
the rescue workers haven't even arrived
at that point
when CNN spoke to her
just a little while ago.
Now, we understand that in addition
to Moroccan authorities
doing what they can
and this includes the military to join
in this rescue effort, for instance,
the United Arab Emirates is setting up
an Arab bridge to provide
Morocco with help.
Israel is assembling
rescue crews to send it to Morocco
as well.
In France,
they've mobilized to try to assist,
for instance.
The mayor of Marseilles has assembled
a team of firefighters to participate
in the rescue effort
as far as the death toll.
The last
we heard from Moroccan television is that
it was at least eight 120 people dead.
But the assumption
is that that number, unfortunately,
will increase.
Amara, Victor.
Ben Wedeman
reporting on the very dire
situation there in Morocco.
Thanks so much.
We spoke this morning
also with Benjamin Brown.
He's a CNN researcher
who was in Marrakesh
when that earthquakes struck.
He told us
he was on a hotel rooftop
when the earthquake hit.
And he describes
the initial uncertainty
and then seeing a large
cloud of dust rise from the sky.
Here he is,
made our way to
the open ground floor,
away from high rise
walls and tall buildings
that may collapse
obviously with the damage
they already suffered,
but also with potential aftershocks.
And yeah,
that's really
when when the panic
has started to kick in for people
when people saw the true
extent of the damage,
but also of the horrific injuries,
I saw
many people carried out of
buildings and stretchers
one person wrapped in a carpet
being brought into the streets.
And some of them, which
what appeared to be very bad
head injuries,
a lot of blood
And I even saw one instance
in which a woman
had to be turned away
by an ambulance crew
because ambulance
was full of injured people.
And they simply said they couldn't
take a take in the ambulance.
We did manage to see
to see the damage
and the walls had come down.
In Marrakesh,
we're speaking about a city
structure with many,
many old buildings, old ways possible.
Obviously, it's the tourist attraction
of this place,
old boys that had their toes, all in it
to some extent. Large rocks even.
It's all this century.
Old City
was just crashing into the streets below.
So,
yeah, I saw
a street littered in rubble
and littered and taller than rocks.
Joining us now is Kishore Jones Wall,
a research
civil engineer at the US
Geological Survey.
Kishore, thank you for being with us.
We know that there's already been a 4.9
aftershock What should we expect
over the next several hours and days
as it relates to potentially more
of those massive aftershocks
Yeah.
Good morning.
Return, Amara, thank you so much.
Before I begin,
I must say my thoughts and prayers
to the Moroccan people.
What witnessed
during the last 12 hours is
is really mind boggling.
But they are really going through
some hardship
for us
as we see these things
unfold in front of our eyes.
Coming back to your question,
this earthquake was a pretty
significant size.
It was a major 6.8
and an earthquake of that size
can clearly produce
a number of aftershocks,
mainly in the range of magnitude five.
And there is a small chance
that an aftershock could be even higher
than the main shock.
However,
that we have
so far recorded an anchor 4.9,
which was within the first 23 minutes
of the main shock.
And the aftershock
activity does continue.
This this main shock had a very
shallow depth
and which was
one of the important reasons for
very strong shaking.
In fact,
our initial estimates suggested
that about 400,000 people experienced
very strong
shaking in this earthquake,
you know, considering 2.8 million people.
Excuse me for cutting off
their apologies, but,
you know,
considering that
there are more aftershocks expected.
I do want to ask you,
considering your background as well
in engineering
regarding the infrastructure
of many of these buildings
in a historic city, like Marrakesh.
What are your concerns
in terms of these buildings
and the fact that they're
already compromised
from the first earthquake
and what might happen to them
during these aftershocks?
You are absolutely right.
Let me explain.
These buildings are very different
from what we see in the United States.
And just to give an example,
if you're going to a rural area
in this country,
you are typically going to look at mud
brick buildings, Adobe constructions,
stone masonry or unreinforced masonry.
Maybe made of cinder block
if they are newer.
So these are predominantly one
to two storey height located on floors
and really vulnerable
to earthquake shaking.
So even Americans
five can easily
bring those pictures down.
You put it
very close
to those population centers
and thus any aftershock
and as a potential to bring some of these
vulnerable buildings down.
And this really affects
how the post-earthquake
reconnaissance missions,
as well as the search and rescue
missions should be conducted
in such an environment.
Kishore, I heard you say that
400,000 people
experience strong shaking
and then you
about to give us another estimate.
What was that? Yeah.
Yeah.
So according to page system at USGS,
we estimate that around 400,000
to be experiencing very strong shaking.
And that
itself speaks
to given the availability of,
you know, large
number of vulnerable buildings
that could be quite lethal.
As you can see,
even though the earthquake location was
sparsely populated area
in the Atlas Mountain region
and not really close
to a major population center
like the big city there.
But given the high winds
that are pretty,
it's quite obvious that you would expect
a large number of casualties
coming from this earthquake.
The other estimate I was saying about was
about 2.8 million,
which covers both ends of the are areas
of the epicenter region.
On the north side, you have a big city.
And on the south
you have another city, Colac idea,
which also has experienced
a big earthquake in 1960
and killed about 10,000 people
So it's a very vulnerable region
of this of this world.
Well we have 10 seconds.
I just want to ask you a search
for the people who are on the ground
sleeping outside, concerned
about these aftershocks.
At what point
will these aftershocks dissipate
and won't be such an issue or a problem?
Like I said,
my interest 6.8
can have a number of aftershock.
That activity could continue for days
and weeks for that matter.
So it's definitely a precarious situation
where these activities
will potentially continue.
All right.
Kishore Jaiswal, yes.
Got it.
Got to
thank you so much for the information.
We really appreciate you joining us.