Sands run down at Bam

COVER STORY: Time is past for pulling victims from the rubble of one of Iran's most-powerful earthquakes. As the dust clears, the clock starts for good Samaritans to help one of the world's worst regimes through its worst-ever disaster | Mindy Belz

Nighttime is when bone-numbing cold returns to the homeless and the rescue teams rev up for work. For many survivors of Iran's Dec. 26 earthquake, white tents and colorful blankets have arrived to ease sleeping out in sub-freezing temperatures. Nothing shields them from devastating losses.

Rescuers know that the overnight quiet is the best time for desperate searches—the only kind left to do beyond the 72-hour mark, after most live victims can be recovered from quake rubble. In the dark, with trucks stilled, trench-digging for graves subsided, and the cries of babies and mourners muffled, stalwart teams flicked on headlamps and sonar equipment. What rescuers remained pursued every report of possible life, probing bewildering lumps of mud bricks in defiance of the unyielding foul stench of death. Each operation began with the vigor of a bivouac but faded to the solemnity of final rites as the workers failed to uncover life beneath the rubble.