Morocco’s quake-survivor search gets foreign help after anger over slow response

Morocco began allowing teams from Spain, the UK and two Arab countries to assist in earthquake rescue efforts, as public anger grows over the domestic response to the nation’s deadliest natural disaster in six decades.

With the death toll now around 2,800 people, rescuers are racing against time as they search the hundreds of remote villages dotting the High Atlas mountains near the epicenter of Friday’s quake. Local media carried numerous reports of stricken Moroccans demanding much quicker help.

“People are still under the rubble and debris,” one resident from the village of Tafegaghte told local outlet Alyaoum 24. “My brother and I dug through the rubble with our own hands to extract our deceased parents,” she said, blaming local officials for standing aside.

The catastrophe dealt a shocking blow to Morocco, a country of 37 million that views itself an island of stability in North Africa and which has been a regional bright spot. The nearby city of Marrakech, partly damaged by the quake, is due to host annual International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in October. There’s been no estimate yet of the total damage caused by the deadliest quake to strike Morocco since 1960, when 12,000 people were killed around the Atlantic coastal city of Agadir. Some analysts on Monday were divided over how seriously the disaster will hit the $140 billion economy, which relies on tourism, agriculture and trade with the European Union.

“While the affected area is large, the affected population is small and the macroeconomic impact is likely minor,” said Hasnain Malik, a strategist at Tellimer in Dubai. While a “short-term hit to tourist activity in Marrakech” is possible, that might be offset by a bump in remittances, he said in a note.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, meanwhile, foresees a wider impact on countrywide tourism, and losses of as much as 2% of real gross domestic product.