The limits of hope

April 23, 1995

From CNN Correspondent Andrew Holtz

OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma (CNN) -- It is hope of finding survivors that keeps rescue workers going. Hope that pushes them to risk their lives. How long can hope endure?

That's the question for Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hanson. "I know the clock's working against us. Out in California, Mexico City earthquakes, they all had survivors four to six days after the initial incident and we're just about to that point now."

After the San Francisco earthquake in 1989, a longshoreman survived for nearly four days. In Kobe, Japan, several people were found more than four days after January's quake. But in Mexico City, 10 years ago, more than eight days passed before a weeks-old infant was rescued from the rubble of a hospital maternity ward.

Rescue workers say the air is good in the pockets they've reached so far. Weather can affect survival. It has been cold at night. And Saturday's rain storm was unwelcome. Someone who is injured may not last as long as someone who is trapped but unharmed.

Hanson says, "In a bombing like this we're finding victims that have a lot of shrapnel wounds, where in an earthquake that may not be the case, severe trauma that may not be caused by an earthquake that may have been caused by the blast, so that may slim down the chance of finding a survivor."

Officials in charge of the search operation have to make a life and death balance between the possibility that there's someone still alive in that building, and the very real certainty that the lives of rescue workers are at risk.

The rescue workers remain eager. "Yeah, you get that little feeling, you never know, you pick a shelf or a door, you know, you never know what you're going to have," Oklahoma Firefighter Steve Lawton says. Hanson also has that concern weighing heavy on his mind. "Even if they say, sure, boss, I'm ready to go in there... we've gotta weigh those factors."

Valerie, a search dog from Portland, Oregon, has worked more than a 100 rescue operations, but this is her first major disaster. Her owner, Harry Oakes, has seen half a dozen. "There's always reasonable hope, as long as we keep searching, there's always a chande. In the Phillipine earthquake, they found a couple of guys in an elevator shaft after two weeks."

And though the clock is ticking toward the edges of human endurance, Valerie continues to search the rubble for the smell of hope.

Feedback

Send us your comments - Selected responses are posted daily.

The limits of hope

Feedback

| CONTENTS | SEARCH | CNN HOME PAGE | MAIN OKLAHOMA CITY PAGE |