[5] The main shock took place on the third day of the Muslim observance of Ramadan, immediately collapsing many hotels, apartments, markets, and office buildings.

By morning the French army and sailors from the United States Sixth Fleet approached the coast, anchored, and prepared for the rescue process.

[12] British author Gavin Maxwell was staying in Morocco at the time of the disaster and his book The Rocks Remain opens with a vivid description drawn from his own experiences and those of others in the area, including important personages in the Moroccan government who numbered among his friends.

He and his son, Crown Prince Moulay Hassan, flew to the area along with several cabinet ministers to observe the impact firsthand.

The Moroccan Army provided emergency aid and helicopters arrived from the Ben Guerir Air Base, around 249 km (155 mi) away.

[14] Upon arrival, Rear Admiral Frank Akers (commander of the U.S. fleet air arm in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean) toured the scene and reported that the Agadir hospital was in ruins.

He was treated at a hospital in Casablanca for minor injuries he received while at the Saada resort when it collapsed – he had been trapped under a fallen beam for several hours.

Rapid putrefaction of the thousands of corpses created a foul and unhealthy atmosphere, and adherence to the Ramadan fast caused further strain on rescue workers.

Disinfectant and DDT were sprayed over the ruins from lorries and helicopters to control disease and kill the swarms of flies which were attracted to the scene.

Challenging designs were often undertaken with untrained workers, and a lack of good supervision was typical, along with an accelerated effort to finish the job.

"[17] A tsunami disaster was later refuted by a report from the American Iron and Steel Institute after a team of earthquake engineers, including Ray W. Clough from the University of California, Berkeley, surveyed the damage and building failures throughout the Agadir area in March 1960.

A report in a 1964 issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America also denied the existence of a destructive tsunami because of a lack of evidence from a nearby tide gauge.