When televised images of collapsed buildings in the earthquake-stricken west Indian city of Ahmedabad reached Mohammad Aleemuddin, the suburban Chicago engineer grabbed the telephone to check on his brother in the affected region.
For several hours, Aleemuddin dialed in vain. His calls went through, but no one picked up in Ahmedabad. Finally, after about four hours, a neighbor passing by answered the ringing phone and delivered good news. His brother, also named Mohammad, and his family were alive and safe, though they were forced to evacuate the building out of fear that aftershocks could still collapse it.
Many others were not so lucky. Indian authorities estimate that Friday’s massive earthquake may have killed 13,000 to 15,000 people in western India. More than a dozen deaths also were reported in neighboring Pakistan.
The disaster has galvanized Chicago’s ethnically and religiously diverse Indian-American community into a flurry of hastily organized fundraising.
“When a natural disaster comes, the people will help each other out,” said Aleemuddin. “This type of disaster does not think, `This is a Hindu, this is a Muslim and this is a Christian.'”
Hours after the quake rattled the state of Gujarat, a Republic Day celebration in Schaumburg Friday night was transformed from a patriotic fete into a series of appeals for relief contributions.
“Whenever something like this happens in our country, we all pitch in,” said Sheetal Patel, a loan administrator at Merrill Lynch and board member for the local chapter of the Network of Indian-American Professionals. Patel said her group will donate proceeds from a mixer Friday night to earthquake relief.
Indians “are very generous, very emotional and very family-oriented. Everybody wants to help,” said Prashant Shah, publisher of the India Tribune, of Chicago. Even as he spread the word about relief efforts, Shah was counting his blessings.
He said he was talking by phone to his wife, Rita, in Ahmedabad when she told him the ground had begun to shake. “She was so scared,” Shah said. “Everything was moving. People were jumping from the third and fourth floors.”
Shah said a 10-story building two doors from his wife “was ground into dirt,” but she was unharmed.
The Chicago chapter of the Federation of Indian Associations, an umbrella group of about 80 Indian groups, scheduled a fundraising dinner Saturday night at the Crown Jewel Banquet Hall in Des Plaines.
Usman Baki, of Chicago, founder of the Gujarati Muslim Association of America, called a meeting of his organization for Saturday night to discuss fundraising. Baki has sisters and uncles in Ahmedabad and received word by e-mail late Friday that they are all safe, though their homes are damaged.
“Property damage I can live with, but human life is something you can’t replace,” Baki said.
Though the immediate focus of their energy is on fundraising, some Indian-Americans wondered whether the Indian government would accept international assistance quickly enough to help save those who might still be alive beneath Gujarat’s broken buildings.
“Timing is everything,” Baki said. “We can raise funds, but they need help now.”
Among the relief groups collecting earthquake relief donations are CARE, 312-641-1430 or 800-521-CARE; and the BAPS Swaminarayan Temple, 800-301-5594.