"God kept me
alive," the petite, wrinkled Mazandarani said as she lay on a bed in a
makeshift hospital in Bam, covered to her chin with a blue blanket and a
brown print scarf tied around her head.
Rescuers
said she asked for a cup of tea soon after her rescue — and then
complained it was too hot to drink.
Normally
people can survive up to three days in the rubble of an earthquake. It was
unclear whether Mazandarani had food or water while she lay trapped under
the ruins.
"No one expected her to be alive. It's
a miracle," provincial government spokesman Asadollah Iranmanesh
said.
Her rescue was not the only bright spot in
the aftermath of the Dec. 26 quake. On Saturday, U.S. doctors said they
had delivered four babies at a makeshift hospital.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose to about 35,000, Brig. Gen. Hoseyn Fat'ahi
of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps told Iran's official news agency.
He said the injured numbered 17,000.
Figures for
the overall dead have varied according to differing estimates of the
number of bodies still under the rubble and thousands of unregistered
burials.
A situation report by the U.N. Disaster
Assessment Coordination Team warned that many survivors were suffering
from psychological disorders after the deaths of their loved ones and the
destruction of their homes.
"Post-traumatic stress
disorder is highly prevalent," the U.N. report said.
On Friday, the U.S. field hospital operated on a young Iranian
soldier who tried to commit suicide by shooting himself after discovering
the quake had wiped out his family.
"If we don't
pay the best attention to this, it will lead to more cases of depression,
suicide and other mental health problems," said Dr. Mohammad Farojpour,
the head of Kerman province's mental health department.
French and German aid groups were flying in a total of 130
psychologists and psychiatrists to counsel survivors, the U.N. report
said. The Iranian Red Crescent Society has already deployed 40 women
counselors to Bam.
The 6.6-magnitue quake damaged
beyond repair up to 85 percent of Bam's houses and buildings, the report
said. Camps of tents with heating are being erected around the city, U.N.
officials said. Up to now, the homeless have been living in unheated tents
set up amid the ruins.
Among the many things
disrupted by the quake was the supply of opium to the city's addicts, Farojpour said. Before the temblor, an estimated 20 percent of people over
the age of 15 in a population of 80,000 were believed to be
addicted.
Methadone, codeine and sterile syringes
were being given to drug addicts, Farojpour said.
The United Nations plans to complete within four days an assessment of the
city's needs for water, sanitation, food and shelter. The facts are to be
presented in an appeal to international donors.
At
least five or six countries, including the United States, are working on
the review.
Bill Garvelink, head of the U.S.
relief team in Bam, has said the destruction was worse than any quake-zone
he had ever seen.
"It's incredible," Garvelink
said. "Bam is literally a rubble pile. I haven't seen any business
functioning and you don't see anybody living in their homes."
On Friday, Iran's state radio, which is controlled by
conservatives, accused President Bush of interference in Iran.
Bush had said he was glad Iran accepted U.S. assistance, but
said its government must embrace democratic reforms and turn over its
detainees from the al-Qaida terror group. Iran says its handling of the
al-Qaida detainees is an internal matter.
The U.S.
team in Bam has been generally well received by local doctors and
citizens. Washington and Tehran have had no diplomatic relations since
militants seized the U.S. Embassy in the Iranian capital in 1979.
