Quake Destroys Bam in Iran

At 5:20am local time on Friday Dec. 27, 2003, a powerful earthquake destroyed the ancient city of Bam while most of the 100,000 residents were in their sleep. Due to the local building material consisting of mudbricks, and construction techniques using little reinforcements, the human loss was immense. As of this writing, the estimated loss of life has approached 30,000.

ERFO has put in motion its assistance program for the surviving children, and our representative has already been dispatched to Bam. Based on our experience with previous disasters of this magnitude, we are expecting the number of children needing assistance to be in the hundreds.

First Pictures From Bam Devastation