Moroccan earthquake survivors huddle in tents fearful of future
Survivors of the Moroccan earthquake huddle in tents after the powerful tremor destroyed homes and killed loved ones. Now they fear what's next.
AMIZMIZ, Morocco — It was a moment of devastating coincidence.
Just as Ali’s daughter blew out the candles on her 21st birthday cake, a fault ruptured 11 miles beneath Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains unleashing forces so violent that villagers did not at first understand what was going on.
“We were partying,” said Ali, 50. “And at the blow of the candle, a terrible sound started like an extraterrestrial engine. We couldn’t grasp what was happening.”
“In a word, it seemed like doomsday,” he said on Tuesday, after he and his family managed to escape the house. Many of his friends in the town were not so lucky, he said.
Ali stands in front of rubble that used to be Cafe Anmoggar in Amizmiz.NBC NewsThe magnitude 6.8 earthquake that struck late Friday night razed entire villages, killing 2,900 people and counting, with bodies still being pulled from the pancaked buildings.
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