Agency for Washington D.C. International 20523 Development

ALGERIA - Earthquake FY 1990

The number of homeless proved to be greater than initially estimated because many of the buildings housed four or five families. The U.N. Office of the Disaster Relief Coordinator (UNDRO) estimated in late November that at least 12,000 victims would have to spend the winter in tents. Lifelines were also affected by the earthquake. An ocean highway linking Tipaza and was rendered impassable, and three bridges were damaged. Electric and telephone service was cut temporarily, hampering the rescue effort. A water shortage before the earthquake was even more acute after the temblor, with lower water levels in the reservoirs.

The Disaster At 8:09p.m. on Oct. 29, 1989, the region of Chenoua Action Taken by the Government of in northern Algeria was jolted by an earthquake (GOA) and Non-Governmental Organizations registering 6 on the Richter scale. Two quakes of Prime Minister Hamrouche and the ministers of lesser magnitude (3.6 and 4.8) followed within 20 health and interior traveled immediately to the minutes. Most of the 27 deaths reported occurred in disaster site to assess damage. The Office of the the small town of N ad or and its immediate President coordinated rescue efforts and surroundings. The official figure for the number reconstruction. Local government officials, assisted by injured was 162, although unofficial reports put the the Algerian Red Crescent (ARC), handled relief and number closer to 300. rehabilitation. Assessment of damage and relief efforts were hampered, however, by the difficulty of The earthquakes caused extensive damage to housing access to the region. The destruction of roads and stoc~ e-specially to earthen and unreinforced masonry bridges rendered access possible only by air and there · (stone rubble and brick) structures. Over 4,000 was a shortage of aircraft. buildings, including most schools in the area, were too severely damaged to be repairable; numerous others The ARC mobilized its staff and resources and alerted sustained cracks or had some degree of structural relief agencies of needs through the League of Red damage. In and Nador villages, 50% of Cross and Red Crescent Societies (LRCS). The ARC homes were destroyed or damaged, and in Cherchell, specifically asked for tents, blankets, children's the casbah (the old town center, formed by courtyard clothing, glucose and saline solutions and dispensing houses) was too badly damaged to be rehabilitated. sets, and LRCS emergency kits. As of Nov. 7, the Continuing aftershocks, felt even in some 60 ARC had distributed 5,372 tents, 600 of them from km. northeast of the epicenters, forced more people the ARC's own supplies; however, the ARC director into the streets in the days following the earthquakes. reported that an additional 2,000 were needed because the tents that had been given out were sheltering low-cost housing. more people than they were designed to hold and many of them were not suitable for winter weather. LRCS - sent a delegate to help the ARC assess needs. The Algerian Astrophysical, Astronomical, and Geophysical Research Center (CRAAG), after UNDRO- provided 200 tents, organized the purchase determining the earthquake's epicenters,.inspected the and shipment of USG-donated supplies, and arranged affected villages and worked with a French seismic the 2-plane airlift of Italian blankets and tents. team to study the possibility of future earthquakes. A damage survey was also conducted by the Agency for UNDRO/SEISMED (the cooperative project for Technical Control of Construction and the Center for seismic risk reduction in the Mediterranean region) - Seismic Engineering Research. The aim of the survey dispatched a team for a week to provide technical . was to determine damage and plan shelter assistance. reconstruction. The GOA requested aid by the UNDRO and the U.N. Development Program to Governments . update and improve ORSEC (Organisation des Denmark, the Netherlands, and Turkey- jointly Secours) national and regional plans. contributed 350 tents.

France - sent a seismic team to assist CRAAG in Assistance Provided by the U.S. Government determining the possibility of future earthquakes and (USG) conducting related research. On Nov. 16, U.S. Ambassador Christopher W. S. Ross determined that USG assistance was warranted and Italy - provided 200 15-person, heavy-duty tents, 10,000 could fill a vital need for appropriate shelter for the blankets, 200 rolls of plastic sheeting ( 400 sq. meters upcoming winter. Although the Office of U.S. each), 240 family kits, 750 kitchen sets, and 2,400 Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) had 400 tents jerrycans, all valued at $400,000. The airlift was available in its stockpile, the tents were not organized by UNDRO and the transportation costs for appropriate for cold weather. OFDA requested that the second flight were borne by the Organization of UNDRO locate and procure 180 winterized family Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Fund. (10-persons) tents and transport them along with 5,520 blankets to Algiers for the earthquake victims. A Japan - furnished $20,000. Belgian Air Force cargo plane flew the goods to Algeria, arriving on Nov. 18. The ARC off-loaded the Non-Governmental Organizations tents onto three trucks and distributed the supplies. OPEC Fund- channeled $46,000 through UNDRO OFDA provided a grant of $92,953 to UNDRO to for the cost of the second B-707 aircraft to transport cover the cost of the emergency operation. relief supplies donated by Italy.

TOTAL $92,953 Note: As of Dec. 8, UNDRO reported that total international donations in cash and kind exceeded $1,500,000. This total presumably includes the USG Assistance Provided by the International donation which, to avoid double counting, is not Community included here.

International Organizations TOTAL $1,405,000 IDNDR (International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction) secretariat approached donors for funding for an awareness drive for the Algerian public, the development of a media kit, and a workshop with local authorities/town planners and national/foreign specialists in earthquake engineering to reiterate possibilities of earthquake-resistant reconstruction of