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DEATHQUAKE;
RESCUE AND RELIEF
CLOCKWORK
ORANGE
"Saving
time was crucial. So obviously there was no question of sleeping."
SWISS RESCUE, salvage team
A
Swiss team shows just how much speed matters in a rescue operation.
Genevieve
Federspiel, programme officer of the Switzerland-based crisis-busting
squad that was in Ahmedabad 14 hours after India asked for help
A
flame orange cap took off in the wind as two truckloads of Swiss Rescue,
a specialist earthquake relief team from Switzerland, raced down the streets
of Ahmedabad on January 28. It belonged to one of the 52 members on board
the open vehicles. Five days later, as the visitors prepared to fly out,
it was time for the entire city to doff its cap to Swiss Rescue. Such
has been the reassuring presence of Team Orange in the city and beyond.
Speed is
of great essence in any rescue operation. The Swiss displayed this in
ample measure. The Indian Government's request for help reached the Swiss
Embassy in Delhi at 10 p.m. on Republic Day. Within minutes the Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation swung into action. In the next
hour (about 7 p.m. Swiss time) all key members of the Swiss team had been
contacted, Swissair was told to organise a special flight and the Red
Cross and the Swiss Disaster Relief alerted.
 By
2 a.m. (Swiss time) on January 27, Swiss Rescue-comprising doctors, medical
"allrounders", telecom specialists, paramedics, logisticians
and nine dogs from Redog-assembled at the Zurich airport, carrying 16
tonnes of equipment (including sonar vibration equipment, cameras to look
through crevices, shafts and holes, devices to detect heartbeat, drillers,
slings to lift concrete) and relief material, mainly Swiss blankets. "Saving
time was crucial so there was no question of sleeping," says Genevieve
Federspiel, programme officer with the Humanitarian Aid and Swiss Disaster
Relief, a division of Swiss Rescue.
Five hours
later they were all skyborne and by noon (IST) January 27-14 hours after
an Indian bureaucrat spoke to a Swiss diplomat in Delhi-the team had touched
down at the Sardar Patel Airport in Ahmedabad. But instead of a quick
exit from the airport, the team was delayed by close to two hours by a
stream of formalities. By 2.30 p.m. the team had reached Mansi, the Ahmedabad
high-rise from where it rescued two persons from the debris.
On January
29, team members flew to Bhuj and Anjar. There they searched ceaselessly
for life beneath the rubble for the next 48 hours. Communication was kept
alive with the help of satellite and cellular phones. By 7 a.m. on February
1 when the Swiss team boarded a Boeing 747 to Zurich, they had saved eight
lives and extricated countless bodies. "This team is experienced
and geared to react quickly in such crisis situations," says Federspiel,
who has stayed back in Ahmedabad for a long-term assessment. "Training
will also be provided in making the high-rise structures in Ahmedabad
earthquake proof. We will teach NGOs and others in prevention and preparedness,"
adds Federspiel.
The more important lesson the Swiss, famed makers of time pieces, will
have taught the Indians is how to react quickly and act against time in
such disasters.
-Sayantan Chakravarty
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