indias earthquake

-- Residents in the Gujarat State of western India spent the night outside Friday, too fearful to go back into their damaged homes after India's most powerful earthquake in half a century. The 7.9 magnitude earthquake killed as many as 2,000, injured at least 2,000, and left 4,000 missing. Most of the missing are thought to be buried under rubble, and rescue workers dug frantically with bulldozers, shovels, sticks -- even bare hands -- trying to find them. "The …

…lines were also kept busy. The quake was the most powerful to strike India since August 15, 1950, when a magnitude-8.5 temblor killed 1,538 people in northeastern Assam state. The last major quake to hit the Gujarat area was in 1819, when a quake estimated at 8.3 magnitude killed about 2,500 people. It was the world's second major quake of the year. On January 13, a magnitude-7.6 quake killed at least 700 people in El Salvador and left 10 percent of its population homeless.