South Asia Earthquake

[ocelot]

Rescuers hunt for South Asia quake survivors

CBC News
Rescuers struggled to reach remote, mountainous areas of Pakistan Sunday after one of the country's worst-ever earthquakes killed more than 20,000 people.

The quake wiped out entire villages, buried roads in rubble and knocked out electricity and water supplies. Pakistan said more than 40,000 people were injured and between 20,000 and 30,000 likely killed, and the death toll was expected to rise.

A Pakistani army spokesperson called the devastation the largest catastrophe in his country's history.

"I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," said Tariq Mahmmod, communications minister for the Himalayan region.

Rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage in Pakistani Kashmir. They faced difficult work Sunday as rain and hail turned the debris into sticky mess.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community for medicine, tents and cargo helicopters. "We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy," said Musharraf. He said the only way to reach many isolated areas was by helicopter because roads were buried by landslides. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."

The toll included 250 girls who died when their school in northwestern Pakistan collapsed. Another 500 students were injured, said Ataullah Khan Wazir, police chief in the northwestern district of Mansehra.

Sardar Mohammed Anwar, the top government official in Pakistani Kashmir, said most homes in Muzaffarabad, the area's capital, were damaged, and schools and hospitals had collapsed.


In Abbotabad, north of Islamabad, dozens of quake victims and other patients, some hooked up to intravenous drips, lay on the lawn of the city hospital after officials said aftershocks made it unsafe to stay inside. Hospital staff used loudspeakers to ask the public for food and other relief supplies.


Damage was extensive in Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan.

Officials in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir reported at least 250 dead, including 20 soldiers who perished in a landslide. At least 850 people were injured and about 2,700 homes were destroyed or damaged across India-controlled Jammu and Kashmir, said senior state official B.B. Vyas.

In the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, buildings shook, walls swayed for about a minute, and people ran in panic from their homes and offices. Tremors continued for hours and communications systems were badly disrupted.

India's government offered condolences and assistance to Pakistan, a longtime rival with which it has been pursuing peace efforts after fighting three wars -- two over Kashmir -- since independence from Britain in 1947.

"While parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate," Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said in a message to Musharraf.

Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz ordered the military to extend "all-out help" to quake-hit areas and appealed to the nation to stay calm.

Several villages in northern Pakistan were buried in landslides triggered by the quake, a spokesman for the Pakistani army reported.

Pakistani army officials who flew over the quake-hit areas early Saturday reported seeing hundreds of flattened homes in northern villages, government officials in Islamabad said.

In Islamabad, scores of people were feared killed or trapped when two buildings collapsed.

Maj. Gen. Sultan said troops and helicopters have been sent to the earthquake-hit areas. Landslides were hindering rescue efforts in some areas.


The quake jolted parts of Bangladesh, but no casualties or damages were reported.

There have been no reports of Canadians killed or injured in the earthquake, and Dan McTeague, parliamentary secretary for Canadians abroad, says no Canadians are registered in the region.

The U.S. Geological Survey said on its website the quake hit at 8:50 a.m. local time and had a magnitude of 7.6. It was centred about 100 kilometres northeast of Islamabad in the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir.

Large parts of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan are seismically active.

The region's most severe earthquake in memory was on May 31, 1935, when a quake measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale destroyed Quetta, in what is now western Pakistan, killing between 30,000 and 60,000 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

[shavonfan]

What a tragedy! If this stuff is all cyclical, as they say it is, we may be in for a lot more natural disasters in the near future. Not much we can do about that, but I hope as a world-wide community we continue to reach out to one another's needs. Thanks for sharing a very well written report.

[ocelot]

"With tens of thousands of lives at risk, Annan urges more quake aid to Pakistan"

19 October 2005 – With 10,000 children in remote earthquake-stricken parts of Pakistan facing possible death within the next few weeks unless helicopters and other vital needs are supplied immediately, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called for an "immediate and exceptional escalation" of the global relief effort.

"A second, massive wave of death will happen if we do not step up our efforts now," Mr. Annan said in a statement calling for 450,000 more winterized tents and temporary shelters and 2 million blankets and sleeping bags to deal with the quake, which has already killed 42,000, injured at least 67,000 others and left some 3 million homeless.

The logistics of the challenge with difficult terrain that "makes this one of the most challenging relief operations ever undertaken," coupled with fast approaching winter underscored the need for much higher UN revolving emergency fund of from $500 million to $1 billion, he told reporters in New York after reading the statement.

Earlier today, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) warned that tens of thousands of children were in peril due to worsening weather, injury and illness, and 10,000 could die of hunger, hypothermia and disease within the next few weeks unless immediate steps are taken to boost the number of those reached by relief.

Mr. Annan noted that hundreds of thousands of people had still not been reached and it was feared the current toll could be far higher. "The people and Government of Pakistan are faced with an extraordinary challenge and we need to make an extraordinary effort to support them," he said.

So far donors have made firm commitments for only $37 million, or 12 per cent, of the UN Flash Appeal of $312 million, he added. In comparison, the Indian Ocean tsunami Flash Appeal at the beginning of the year was 80 per cent funded within 10 days of the disaster.

Mr. Annan called on key donors and organizations, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to mobilize the assets of its member States to meet the unprecedented logistical challenges.

"We need helicopters, trucks, heavy lifting equipment, shelter and health care," he said. "We need tarpaulins, ground sheets and stoves. We need water and sanitation equipment. We need food supplies.

"Next week, I will be attending the emergency donors' conference in Geneva convened by the United Nations. We expect results. I urge governments and other organizations to attend at the highest level. There are no excuses. If we are to show ourselves worthy of calling ourselves members of humankind, we must rise to this challenge. Our response will be no less than a measure of our humanity," he concluded.

Painting an equally grim picture, UNICEF Executive Director Ann M. Veneman warned there as many as 120,000 children in the mountains still without access to aid.

"Temperatures have dropped and weather conditions are getting worse," she said in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she was visiting the agency's global supply warehouse. "Access to affected areas has been badly affected as roads have become clogged with mud and people fleeing the mountains with their injured. Tens of thousands of children are at risk."

Under current circumstances, even if tents and blankets were to arrive at each remote village immediately children would still be at serious risk due to a lack of medical assistance, de-hydration because of bad water, and malnutrition.

"There is a significant threat of disease, with outbreaks of diarrhoea already," she said. "Given the intermittent shut-downs of the air corridor because of bad weather, the consequences for sick and injured children could be grave."

[shavonfan]

This will be a moment of truth. Act now, play politics later. But let's save lives before anything happens.

[ocelot]

I absolutely agree.