O.C. Indians Anxious for Details

While there is no coordinated relief effort so far, many Indians in Orange County were frantically trying to call relatives in their homeland Thursday after one of the worst earthquakes to strike that country in nearly 60 years.

“My mother was traveling from Bombay,” said Alladi Venkatash, a UC Irvine associate professor in the Graduate School of Management. She was headed for Bangalore, and I haven’t been able to reach her or my relatives there.”

Authorities say that at least 12,000 people have died in the quake. The temblor awakened people from Bombay in west India to Bangalore and Madras, the largest cities in southern India that are up to 400 miles from the epicenter. People fled their homes in panic as floors, doors and windows shook.

Estimates vary on the number of victims and the size of the quake, which measured between 6.0 and 6.4 in magnitude.

With telephone service disrupted, Venkatash and many others were hopeful that their relatives were safe.

But it was the sense of not having any communications with India that frustrated them. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Orange County has 15,212 Indians.

“I feel she’s OK,” Venkatash said. “(But) there’s been no answer.”

At the newspaper offices of India West, a 14,000-circulation weekly, telephone lines were jammed with hundreds of callers eager to get the latest information about the devastation, said Atul Vaidya, associate editor. The newspaper is published in Emeryville in Northern California but has an office in Los Angeles.

“They all want to know about the number of victims and devastation,” Vaidya said.

Because the earthquake occurred after the newspaper’s deadline, this week’s edition had no mention of the quake. But once disaster relief funds begin and Southern California’s Indian community gets a clearer idea of what kind of relief aid is requested by emergency agencies in India, the newspaper plans to include them in its next issue Wednesday, Vaidya said.

A container full of clothes had been shipped several weeks ago and was about to reach Bombay. Vaidya said that Care USA, which coordinated the project, was able to divert the clothes to southern India.

As information about the quake’s destruction became known, many in the community reacted with fear and emotion.

“Of course we’re quite worried,” said Syed F. Multani, principal at Orange Crescent School, a private Muslim campus of 310 students in Garden Grove. “Some of our teachers were from that part of India. They were near crying this morning.”

Indian Americans who were contacted said India, a country of 886 million people, was already faced with major internal political problems, a poor economy and poverty.

“It’s very unfortunate because the people in these rural villages where the quake hit are already poor,” said Anna Prasad of Huntington Beach, who is vice president of the Cerritos-based Federation of Indo-American Assn. of Southern California, an umbrella for more than 70 organizations in Southern California.

An emergency board meeting was called for Thursday night to discuss relief projects, including a fund for the quake-stricken area, she said.

A relief fund was begun Thursday by the Federation of Hindu Assns. Inc. in Artesia, said its president, Ramesh Gandhi.

Gandhi requested that any contributions be made payable to the FHA India Earthquake Relief Fund. Donations will be wire-transferred immediately to reputable charitable organizations in India, he said.

The Federation of Hindu Assns. Inc. is at 17127 Pioneer Blvd., Suite 1, Artesia, Calif. 90701.

The American Red Cross, Orange County chapter, is also accepting donations, said Judy Iannaccone, a spokeswoman.

Those who wish to contribute can make checks payable to American Red Cross, earmarked India Relief, P.O. Box, 11364, Santa Ana, Calif. 92711.