Historians tend to agree that the ban on reporting the extent of the casualties and damage did not allow the Soviet government to allocate enough financial resources to respond adequately.

In a few seconds, the entire old clay, adobe city was destroyed, and in place of the houses, a terrible white veil of dust shot up into the air, hiding everything.

[6] Shortly after the earthquake in one of the military units located on the western outskirts of Ashgabat, the radio operator managed to turn on the emergency lighting.

The news of the disaster was able to be sent on the air through the on-board radio station located in the airport and the wounded flight mechanic Muscovite Yury Drozdov, who reached the Ilyushin Il-12 passenger plane in the dark.

Two hours after the earthquake, in Tashkent, the commander of the Turkestan Military District, Army General Ivan Yefimovich Petrov learned about the tragedy in Ashgabat.

General Petrov who meanwhile arrived in Ashgabat was also included in this commission, immediately called-in military units from neighboring garrisons.

Because most motor vehicles were stored either under the open sky or in light plywood garages, most trucks and passenger automobiles were undamaged and proved critical to delivery of medicine and medical supplies from a destroyed pharmaceutical warehouse.