Morocco, where more than
1000 people were killed
after a powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake
after it struck Friday night.
It's epicenter
located in the High Atlas Mountains,
just southwest of Marrakesh.
The quake was the strongest
to hit the historic tourist area
in over a century.
And rescuers
are now struggling
to access the hardest hit areas
after roads, of course, were damaged.
One witness said that they are hoping
for miracles from the rubble.
More than 700
people were injured in the quake
and are in critical condition.
Intense aftershocks have hit the area.
Experts expect the death toll to rise
I heard people screaming.
Everyone went out of their houses.
The street is full of people
and women screaming.
That's what happened.
Even now,
people can't go back home because
they're still afraid.
I want to bring in
now CNN senior
international correspondent Ben
Wedeman for more on this Ben.
The destruction is devastating.
I mean, what are emergency
crews up against,
especially when you have an earthquake
of this magnitude?
It means so many
passageways are simply impassable.
All well, in addition to the strength
of this earthquake, 6.8
on the Richter scale.
You have to keep in mind
that it took place
in a very mountainous very rugged area.
I've been hiking up there
and you have very steep mountains, remote
communities, villages
and towns scattered to in the mountains.
And the Moroccans,
it appears,
simply don't have the manpower
and equipment
to deal
with all of these different locations.
Where we're seeing so much damage.
In fact, some eyewitnesses are telling us
that in their towns
where there has been damage and death,
the rescue
workers have not actually gone there
because they're focusing
their efforts on the worst hit areas.
Now, what we've seen
throughout the day actually
the earthquake took place at 11, 13 p.m.
on Friday,
and there have been
more than a dozen aftershocks.
So lots of
people are staying outside,
sleeping outside.
That includes
tourists as well
who have been sleeping in the streets.
But what we've seen
is that the death toll
has been rising steadily
throughout the day as the rescue effort
gathers pace.
At the last number we heard was
1037 dead, more than 2200 wounded,
721 of whom were in critical condition.
Now, what we're seen is an outpouring of
efforts and
offers to help from a variety of places.
The French have mobilized,
for instance,
firefighters
to help with the rescue effort.
Turkey is mobilizing
more than 260 people, a thousand tents
ready to go.
The Israelis have also assembled
emergency medical teams
to go to the worst affected areas.
And in these affected areas,
for instance,
in many of them, there's no running water
there is no electricity.
The medical facilities are overwhelmed.
For instance,
the main hospital in Marrakesh.
They've had to have put beds out
in the streets
because they simply don't have the room
to treat all the injured people.
And as I said,
the number of injured and dead
is expected to rise steadily
as the rescue effort moves forward
Fredricka.
Yeah, it's an incredible situation there.
And then Ben,
is there a way
you could kind of describe for people
the Marrakesh region,
the area from the locations
where tourists love to flock
to those more remote mountainous areas
Well, Marrakesh
itself
is in a plane,
but that's an old it's an ancient city.
And many of the buildings are very old
there.
And many of them
have been severely damaged now.
When you go up into the High
Atlas Mountains,
you have sort of deep ravines and
mountain passes
that are easily blocked
by falling rubble,
even rocks
under the best of circumstances.
With an earthquake,
earthquake,
you're seeing that some of these roads to
the worst affected
areas are blocked by boulders.
And that's going to make
the situation difficult.
And it's simply,
you know, the area is so mountainous
and there's
little, little villages
dotted around up in the hills.
Very hard to reach so they're going
to really need all the help they can get.
The Moroccans,
that is
from outside
to try to get to these people
who are most badly affected in these
very mountainous areas Fredricka.
All right. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much.
Appreciate you joining us from Rome.
But you're being very
knowledgeable of the region
It was very insightful to talk with you.
All right. CNN researcher
Benjamin Brown
was on a rooftop in Marrakesh
when the earthquake hit and said
it took a while for people to realize
what was happening.
Earlier today, he described
what he witnessed in the aftermath
A large cloud of dust that
had been shaken off the ground
just erupted into the sky.
And covering covering
basically the entire sky in dust
when the shaking then then stopped.
We.
This is me
and the other guests in the hotel
made our way to the open grounds,
fog away from high rise
walls and toward buildings
that may collapse,
obviously, with the damage
they'd already suffered,
but also with potential aftershocks.
And yeah,
that's really
when when the panic,
I 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
picture in the ambulance
All right.
That was our Benjamin Brown.
With the rising death toll.
Many countries are poised to assist
with recovery efforts.
It will be a colossal effort.
However.
For more on all of this,
I'm joined now by Caroline Holt.
She is the director of disaster climate
and crises
with the International Federation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Caroline, great to see you.
So with a disaster
of this magnitude, of this scale,
what is the top priority?
Yeah, Thank you
for inviting me to join you.
I mean,
I think we've had a very clear outline
from from the previous guests as well.
This is a very serious
it was a huge earthquake.
It's been a huge disaster.
And what we're likely to see
is really in the coming days
as the need start to unfold
and the realization
and the reality of the impact,
I think we'll start to see that
death toll, unfortunately, rise.
We'll also see those
who have suffered injuries,
certainly in the initial earthquake.
But again, to mention
those aftershocks that
that your colleague
also talked about as well,
not only will
that has
not only does that have the potential
to create further injuries
to people and broken bones
and and
severe head injuries, etc.,
but really, it creates a sense of fear
among the population
that have survived that initial trauma
in the next few hours.
Its search and rescue
really to find those
that are still alive
and under the rubble.
And that will be absolutely the priority,
as well as taking the best care
that we can
of those people that have survived.
While leaders from around
the world are offering condolences
and say that they are ready to help,
including the US,
what kind of assistance or resources
do you think are going to be helpful,
whether they be coupled
with your resources or stand alone?
Yeah, we're
seeing huge international solidarity
which of course is always very heartening
at such a terrible time like this.
We also,
unfortunately or fortunately,
have a lot of experience
when it comes to earthquakes
and how to respond.
We know that there will be a requirement
for shelter in the form of tents.
No doubt in the early phases, food
and safe
and clean water
will also be critical
to make sure
that we don't see a disaster
within a disaster.
We need to make sure that people
have access
to those basic needs
that they will continue to require.
First, aid and psychosocial support
to help with the mental health
needs of people
that are suffering
and will continue to suffer.
The trauma will also be prioritized.
And I will
I can only imagine that we will see
the international aid
effort really start to scale up
in the coming days.
Within the medical community,
the basic need might be blood
but a blood center
in Morocco is urging people
to donate blood as quickly as possible
because of the kinds of shortages
that already seem to be evidence
given the critical needs.
What kind of donations might
be coming your way
through your organization?
Thank you.
Well, in terms of the Moroccan
Red Crescent,
they're working
in very much in coordination
with the with the government
and with national agencies on the ground.
So the needs will start to be defined
more clearly
as we understand the breadth
and the depth of those needs
and what they really look like.
But as you say,
there's already that very clear
ask for blood
which is very common
in these early stages.
I think it's important to recognize
that it's roads, transportation, it's
healthcare, it's communication.
Everything is impacted by a disaster
of this nature,
specifically by earthquake.
So everything is a complicated
and it's a very complex
response that will be required.
People will be living outside
for the foreseeable future.
And not only is it
very hot during the day
and they'll need some shelter,
but certainly in those mountainous areas
that have also been hit
where the epicenter was,
it will experience
very cold temperatures at night.
So we need basic shelter
to really protect
people from the from the elements
as the needs unfold.
There will no doubt
be further calls for specific aid,
specific aid requests.
And we fully expect,
as we've seen before,
that the international community
will step forward.
And we saw that in Turkey after that
devastating earthquake.
People
sleeping outside for a very long time
and now a very similar pattern
happening here.
Caroline Holt, thank you so much.