Subscribe to one of our news e-mail lists . The magnitude-7.9 quake struck western India on Friday, and by Monday at least 11,000 are feared dead.
Survivors say help from the government was too slow in coming when the quake first hit.
Most Gujarat state officials were attending a military parade for Republic Day on Friday, a commemoration of the adoption of India's constitution in 1950. We lost precious hours soon after the earthquake. Every state government officer we called was away at a parade. Chief minister Keshubahi Patel, the top elected official of Gujarat state, where the quake hit, denied charges of a slow response. I organized the officials at the parade itself and we got down to work.