Relief Officials Issue Appeal for Victims of Quake in San Salvador : Money, Medical Supplies Said to Be the Best Way to Aid Thousands of Homeless

Local relief officials on Sunday issued urgent appeals for money and medical supplies as they learned the extent of the destruction and casualties caused by the earthquake Friday in the capital city of El Salvador.

Ana Margoth Mendez, consul general for the El Salvador Consulate in Los Angeles, said donations of money and medicine appear to be the best and quickest way to aid the thousands who were left homeless and injured in San Salvador and surrounding communities.

The consulate issued a list of needed medical supplies that included gloves, syringes, analgesics, crutches, surgical clothes, gauze, soap and antibiotics.

Los Angeles-based Medical Aid for El Salvador on Sunday was trying to arrange an airlift of 11,000 pounds of medical supplies either tonight or Tuesday, said Jon Floyd, director of emergency services for the organization.

“The situation there is critical,” Floyd said. “There’s so many people injured, particularly children.”

Devastated Neighborhoods

With major rescue efforts concentrated on collapsed buildings in downtown San Salvador, little or no medical aid has been dispatched to the injured and homeless in four devastated neighborhoods, he said.

The organization, which is coordinating efforts with the relief group Operation California, already has sent two doctors and is waiting to send 25 doctors and nurses on the first available flight, Floyd said.

The El Salvador Consulate and the International Red Cross received hundreds of monetary donations on Sunday and sent out volunteers to contact hospitals and medical supply companies. The consulate, area churches and other agencies also are accepting clothes, blankets, food and other supplies.

“What we need is help, help, help, help,” said Mendez inside the consulate offices on the seventh floor at 634 S. Spring St. Estimates as of Sunday night put the toll at 890 dead and up to 10,000 injured.

Hundreds of people--as they did Saturday--streamed into the consulate to make donations and seek information about family members who live in the devastated areas. Dozens of others gathered outside on Spring Street to listen to a volunteer announce the neighborhoods hardest hit by the earthquake.

6,000 Letters Received

Mendez, who learned Saturday night that her family survived the earthquake, said that TACA, El Salvador’s national airline, has agreed to carry supplies and act as a mail carrier for families attempting to communicate between Los Angeles and San Salvador. One volunteer worker said the consulate received 6,000 letters Saturday night.

By late Sunday afternoon, the consulate had received nearly $23,000 in donations, and the Red Cross center had collected about $5,000.

El Rescate, a nonprofit organization that aids Central American refugees, reported that its volunteers had collected $5,000 and 3,000 messages from refugees in Los Angeles who are trying to learn the fate of relatives in El Salvador. Jaime Flores, a social worker for the group, said a private air service carried the first batch of messages to San Salvador, where the Catholic Church will try to locate the relatives, he said.

At Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Los Angeles, priests announced Sunday that contributions collected during the 11 masses over the weekend and from a benefit dance Saturday night would be donated to El Salvador via the Salvadoran Archdiocese. Father Michael Kennedy said the parish hoped to raise $25,000, and Father Luis Olivares said the Archdiocese of Los Angeles contributed $100,000 to Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas in San Salvador.

Kennedy, who has counseled many Salvadorans since the earthquake, said many are emotionally torn by feelings of helplessness and frustration.

Fear Political Persecution

Nelson Rivas, who came to Los Angeles from El Salvador five years ago, said he would like to return home to find his father, stepmother and three brothers but feared political persecution from the government. “I would like to go back, but my family could be in danger if I stay there.”

Olivares said he focused the theme of Sunday’s masses on setting aside political differences in war-torn El Salvador in favor of unity. “The tragedy of this earthquake allows us to put aside our divisions,” he said.

Outside the parish hall, 64-year-old Enriqueta Lopez placed a lighted candle in the grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe and prayed for relatives who live in Soyapango, a community reported heavily damaged by the earthquake. “I am worried because I haven’t heard anything from them,” Lopez said.