Quake disaster beset by aftershocks and bad weather
A new aftershock shook the region devastated by last weekend’s powerful earthquake and rains began to fall, soaking homeless victims and raising fears the relief effort could be hndered.
The showers were expected to become heavy, which could disrupt efforts to provide food and shelter to an estimated two million people ahead o the harsh Himalayan winter. Downpours earlier in the week grounded helicopters and stopped trucks loaded with relief supplies.
Delays could be catastrophic, as UNICEF warned that thousands of children are at risk of death from cold, malnutrition and disease.
Rescue workers abandoned the official search yesterday for survivors trapped in the rubble, though individual efforts continued, with an 18-month-old girl pulled out alive from the ruins of her home.
With Pakistan’s death toll from the October 8 earthquake estimated at more than 35,000, Jan Egeland, the UN under-secretary-general and emergency relief co-ordinator, said the search-and-rescue phase was now over. “It’s a cruel reality. But after a week, very few people survive,” he said.
Egeland, who travelled to hard-hit areas, said he feared bottlenecks of relief supplies.
“If we don’t work together, we will become a disaster within a disaster,” he said. He said it would take billions of dollars and “five to 10 years” to rebuild.
Early today, an aftershock measuring magnitude 5 struck 78 miles north of Islamabad in the region worst hit by the initial quake, but there were no immediate reports of damage. There have been more than 500 aftershocks since the main quake.
“They’re going to continue,” warned Waverly Person, a seismologist with the US National Earthquake Centre in Colorado. “This was a big event.”
Most of Pakistan’s deaths were in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, where snow has started to fall in some areas. India has reported more than 1,350 deaths in the portion of Kashmir it controls.$< Many exhausted relief workers dealt with the added burden of fasting during the daytime hours for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Water and electricity were restored to parts of Muzaffarabad, a Kashmiri city of 600,000 in the heart of the quake zone. Authorities worked to bring power back to outlying villages.
Pakistani military helicopters flew in and out of a sports stadium in Muzaffarabad, where a temporary hospital had been set up. They ferried aid workers to isolated villages, including those in the Neelum and Jehlum valleys, and brought back hundreds of injured people.
Pakistan’s information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said helicopters from other nations had helped save 6,000 injured people by ferrying them to hospitals. On Friday, 45 helicopters flew a total of 80 sorties, he said.
The US military has deployed 13 helicopters to Pakistan, and has begun dropping relief supplies by air from C-130 transport planes.
Dozens of countries have donated money and aid.
Millions of Muslims thronged mosques across Pakistan yesterday, the Muslim sabbath, to offer prayers for those who died in the earthquake. Some clerics said the quake was a sign that God was unhappy with his people. About 1,500 worshippers gathered inside a damaged mosque in the centre of Muzaffarabad.
“God, forgive us,” said the cleric, Mulana Sazluddin Chishdi. “Help all those who are helping others in this hard time, and give the nation courage to bear this loss and take part in the reconstruction of this city.”
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