County’s Iranians Offer Aid in Quake : Rescue: Money, medicine and means of shelter are being collected for the thousands of injured and homeless by professional and community groups.

Orange County’s Iranian community launched an ambitious effort Sunday to collect half a million dollars in money, medicine, tents, blankets and sleeping bags for hundreds of thousands of injured and homeless people in earthquake-ravaged Iran.

Representatives of 11 Iranian professional and community groups manned tables near William R. Mason Regional Park, where contributors dropped off supplies, pledged other aid or made financial contributions.

Organizers said they hope to raise at least $500,000 in donations.

“We’ll do this as long as it takes,” said organizer Bijan Kian. “We will be back here again next Sunday. I have been in contact with a group that raised $150,000 (Saturday) by telephoning from home to home. This is from their friends and relatives. I’m sure we can double and triple that.”

The 50 organizers Sunday wore black armbands expressing their grief for those killed, injured and left homeless in what they described as that country’s worst earthquake of the century.

In Iran, rescue efforts were hampered Sunday as the strongest aftershock yet jarred the already severely damaged rice-growing region of Rasht, 120 miles northwest of Tehran. The new shock, with a magnitude of 5.7, toppled the few still-standing structures and caused mudslides that temporarily closed the road linking Rasht with other destruction zones in Zanjan province.

Estimates of the number killed in the devastating quake reached 50,000, with an additional 200,000 injured.

Army mountaineers climbed rugged mountains Sunday in an effort to rescue villagers trapped in remote hamlets in the ravaged northern provinces.

“They have no water or electricity,” said Farrokh Shokooh, another organizer of the Sunday fund-raiser. “Everything is made that much more difficult because it is the rainy season.”

Shokooh said the effort to help the earthquake victims was put together hastily Friday afternoon.

The group set up the collection point in front of William R. Mason Regional Park on property belonging to the City of Irvine.

Irvine Police Sgt. Tom Hume, who is in charge of policing special events held in the city, said the group failed to obtain a permit from the city. But police accommodated the group, blocking off a bike lane on University Avenue so cars could pull in and unload supplies for the earthquake victims. The supplies were put into a large truck parked along the road.

Hume said that two officers assigned to the event reported the crowd as small.

Organizer Genia Panahi, 40, of Newport Beach, said the 150 Iranian doctors practicing in Orange County responded to calls for medicine, surgical gloves, disposable needles and blood bags. Organizers said between 60,000 and 80,000 Iranians live in Orange County.

“Medicine is in such a short supply over there,” said Panahi, who along with her husband is a medical doctor. “Doctors are being asked to donate needles, gloves and antibiotics.”

Her 17-year-old son, Homan, and his friend Sepehr Khonsari worked throughout the day Saturday collecting medical supplies from doctors’ offices throughout the county.

The group--the Orange County Committee for Iran Earthquake Relief--has set up a special account at Capital Bank in Santa Ana. Checks can be made out to the Iran Earthquake Fund and mailed to the bank at 400 N. Tustin Ave. Blankets, tents and sleeping bags can be delivered to the Iranian Cultural Center at 8361 Westminster Blvd., Suite 220, in Westminster.

Kian said money sent to the special Capital Bank account will be turned over to the Red Cross for distribution in Iran.

Red Cross representative Sylvia Stewart said the Red Cross will accept only monetary contributions because shipping supplies there is very expensive. She said sending money and allowing the supplies to be purchased there “helps stimulate the economy.” She said the donations are sent to the national Red Cross and then to the international organization.

The Iranian Student Assn. at California State Fullerton has set up a booth in Parking Lot C near State College Boulevard and Nutwood Avenue. The donations will be forwarded to the Red Cross or they may be sent directly to the Red Cross, P.O. Box 11364, Santa Ana, CA. 92711-1364.