Death in El Salvador

The first tremors struck at 11:55 a.m. Friday. By nightfall El Salvador's capital, San Salvador (pop. 800,000), was virtually cut off from the rest of the world, plunged into darkness and littered with rubble. Though the quake, at 5.2 to 5.4 on the Richter scale, was considerably weaker than the 8.1 killer that leveled much of Mexico City last fall, it appears to have wrought terrible destruction.

Amid confusion, reports put the toll as high as 400 dead and 6,000 injured. Scores of stricken people lay outside overcrowded hospitals. Others wandered aimlessly through broken streets covered with shattered glass. Hardest hit were the city's slums, where wood and adobe shanties simply crumbled. Many victims were children: 30 were buried under the Don Bosco School, southeast of the city, which collapsed just before students were to go home. Reported Radio Commentator Francisco Espinoza: "I've seen bodies that are destroyed, especially of children. Desperate people are digging among the rubble, looking for dead and wounded."

El Salvador's President José Napoleón Duarte declared a state of emergency and issued an appeal for unity. "We'll come out of this, with the efforts and courage of all Salvadorans," Duarte said in a radio address. The magnitude of the disaster produced a rare show of solidarity in a nation torn by a seven-year civil war. In an extraordinary communiqué, the rebel guerrilla force, the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, declared a temporary cease-fire.

The U.S., a strong supporter of the Duarte government, was also quick to respond. From Reykjavik, where he was preparing to meet Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, President Reagan sent Duarte a Saturday telegram promising to help "in any way we can." U.S. officials immediately released some $25,000 in initial aid and rushed supplies from Panama to the stricken country. Governments and private groups worldwide pledged help that ranged from medical teams to search dogs.

While no American casualties were reported, Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams said the U.S. embassy in San Salvador was virtually destroyed, and the bunker-like compound might have to be razed. The loss would be a painful one, since the embassy served as a nerve center for the U.S.-backed campaign against the guerrillas.

Some Salvadorans saw the quake as a portent and reminder of the nation's bloody fighting. Archbishop Arturo Rivera y Damas, who has mediated between the government and guerrilla forces, called the tragedy a sign from God. It was "specially directed," said the Archbishop, "to those that have the power of decision" to end the civil war.