i m victor blackwell. you re in the cnn newsroom. we begin with the news out of morocco of a devastating erk. the official death toll has risen to 1,037 deaths after a powerful magnitude 6.8 quake. the strongest to hit the north african nation in more than a century, it struck late last night, centered in the mountains surrounding marakesh, a tourist destination. the world health organization says more than 300,000 people in that city were affected. officials say there are more than 1,000 confirmed injuries, too, and with the sun up now, there is a race to reach victims in the most affected areas. but officials say rescue teams are struggling to get to those places. cnn s ben wedeman joins us now. rescue efforts are under way, but there is a concern this morning about aftershocks, especially knowing that morocco s infrastructure is not built for these kinds of large quakes. reporter: this is not considered a quake zone, in fact, and one of the problems is this earthquak