Pakistan: Death toll soars past 18,000

[linuxgeek]

src

Pakistan puts quake toll at 18,000

Emergency workers toil through the night; deaths high in Kashmir

Saturday, October 8, 2005; Posted: 11:32 p.m. EDT (03:32 GMT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The Pakistan earthquake toll has reached 18,000 dead and more than 41,000 injured, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, said Sunday.

Sultan told CNN the figure was as of 7.am. (10 p.m. ET Saturday). CNN could not independently verify Sultan's figures.

He said the magnitude 7.6 quake that struck Pakistan and parts of India and Afghanistan on Saturday morning had killed 18,020 and injured 41,188 people.

Most of the dead, Sultan said, were in the Pakistani-controlled part of Kashmir, followed by the North-West Province and other northern areas.

Among the dead were 215 army soldiers, including six officers, Sultan said. In addition, 414 soldiers were injured.

President Musharraf planned to tour quake-struck areas again Sunday.

The quake hit Saturday at 8:50 a.m. (11:50 p.m. ET Friday). Its epicenter was about 60 miles north-northeast of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad. It was felt in major cities, including Islamabad and Lahore, and India's capital of New Delhi. (See scenes of major damage in the capital - :44)

The death toll is expected to rise, Sultan said, because rescue workers and the military have been unable to access some of the remote areas hit by the quake. He said entire villages and many roads have been wiped out by landslides.

"The army has fully mobilized to handle this situation. This disaster is by far the biggest in its magnitude and scale so far that we have witnessed in Pakistan's history," the general said.

"There is a lot that needs to be done. There are many areas that so far have not been reached. The death toll of 18,000 could be many-fold more as we reach more areas and as we discover more and more dead bodies under the rubble."

The army is trying to evacuate the injured and set up medical camps and relief centers. Helicopters are airlifting supplies, then transporting injured people to hospitals. The army's biggest problem is trying to access remote areas, he said.

Pakistan needs transport helicopters able to carry large machinery that can be used to clear debris. Until roads are cleared, relief operations will have to rely on helicopter flights, Sultan said.

Emergency workers on Sunday are continuing to pull out the trapped, treat the injured and feed the homeless survivors of the earthquake.

In Islamabad, nearly 24 hours after the quake hit, rescue workers were trying to free as many as 100 people trapped beneath a collapsed apartment building in Islamabad. At least 25 bodies were pulled from the rubble, along with eight survivors.

Salim Bokhari, group editor with the English-language newspaper "The News," said from Lahore, Pakistan, that he had reports that 250 students were killed when a school building collapsed 40 miles from Islamabad. Also, he said, three school buildings were reported to have been destroyed in the Pakistani-ruled part of disputed Kashmir, killing more than 200 children.

In addition, Bokhari said one of three hospitals in Pakistani Kashmir reportedly collapsed.

In Amritsar, east of Lahore, a man sobbed as he described losing his business.

"The earthquake struck and minutes after I got a call that smoke was coming out of my shop. I rushed and saw that my shop was on fire. I have suffered massive losses."

Only one death was reported in Afghanistan. A young girl died in Jalalabad when a wall collapsed in her home. A U.S. soldier told CNN the quake was felt in Kabul, but "effects were minimal."

Frantic efforts to rescue survivors continued in Islamabad early Sunday morning. Video footage from Pakistani television showed crowds of people climbing on the rubble of an apartment building and attempting to free those trapped under large concrete slabs. Some of the injured were carried away on stretchers. (Watch the latest rescue efforts - 1:10)

Many people were still in their beds when the quake struck. Witness Malik Abdul Manan, who lives in Islamabad, said he and his family "woke up and ran out. The shocks went on for a long time." (More witness accounts)

Stunned Pakistanis, many covered with blood, were camped out in the streets on Sunday, fearful of returning home because of aftershocks, one of which measured 6.3 in magnitude.

"Even today, people are scared," Bokhari said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called the earthquake "severe" and "a major catastrophe" and said it's a "traumatic experience" for citizens.

Help offered

Political tensions between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region took a back seat as Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called President Pervez Musharraf and offered help. Musharraf thanked him for his offer.

The two nations have fought three wars -- two of them over Kashmir -- since independence from British rule in 1947.

Aziz, who saw aerial views of the devastation, said "we have provided for a lot of alternate housing. Luckily, the weather is not that cold yet so people are living in tents, sleeping bags. Blankets, water, food and a lot of help is coming from all over the country and overseas also."

Earlier, the breakdown of 1,080 people killed in Pakistan included 520 in North-West Frontier province, 310 in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, and 50 in the Pakistani cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi, according to figures from police, the Interior Ministry and local hospitals. Two hundred Pakistani soldiers were killed in Kashmir and northern areas of Pakistan, and 300 others were wounded, Sultan told CNN.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, or Jammu-Kashmir, the death toll stood at about 256, including 36 Indian soldiers, according to local government, army and police officials.

Some 700 other people were injured in Jammu-Kashmir as well, including 82 soldiers, according to the police and military. Local officials estimate more than 1,000 dwellings have been damaged or destroyed across Jammu-Kashmir.

Qamar Uz Zaman, director-general of the Pakistani Meteorological Department, told CNN that "this was the strongest earthquake in the area during the last hundred years."

The United States, Britain, Germany, Turkey, Japan, the United Nations and non-governmental humanitarian groups have marshaled resources to help the region. (Details)

Musharraf and Aziz reviewed rescue and relief operations at the collapsed apartment building -- the 10-story residential Margalla Tower.

Rain and brisk winds hampered the effort late Saturday, but by the early hours of Sunday, the weather had cleared.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and senior military and civilian officials, were overseeing the operations and briefed the leaders.

The government said Pakistan Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Administration and Capital Development Authority took part in the operations.

How the quake compares with others

The quake was "quite shallow," said David Applegate, senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. "That means the shaking is going to be very intense."

The fact that Islamabad was near the epicenter "means a fairly large urban population has experienced some strong shaking," Applegate said.

The National Earthquake Information Center put the quake at 7.6 magnitude, which it considers "major." The Pakistani Meteorological Department put the magnitude at 7.5, and Japan's Meteorological Agency put it at 7.8.

In February 2004, a pair of earthquakes registering 5.5 and 5.4 magnitude killed at least 21 people and injured dozens more. Hundreds of homes built of mud, stone and timber were destroyed in a rugged, mountainous area about 90 miles northwest of Islamabad.

In January 2001, some 20,000 people died in a magnitude 7.7 quake that was
centered in southern India but also caused damage and deaths in Pakistan.

 

[linuxgeek]

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/interactive/world/0510/popup.pakistan.quake/popup.pakistan.quake.2.gif

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40887000/gif/_40887996_pakistan_quake6_map416.gif

 

[NaughtyLil1]

There's so much misfortunate happening everywhere.

 

[Morwen]

Overpopulation.

Half that country would die in two months if Western grain shipments stopped.

 

[linuxgeek]

src

South Asia earthquake: Red Cross Red Crescent releases emergency funds
Geneva, 8 October 2005

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is releasing an initial amount of 200,000 Swiss francs to support victims of a devastating earthquake (7.6 on the Richter scale) which struck the region bordering Pakistan, northern India and Afghanistan today. Thousands are feared dead and injured, trapped under rubble as aftershocks continued to shake cities and villages across the region. The epicenter was located in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) immediately dispatched three assessment missions in the early afternoon, local time, two to the north western frontier provinces and one to Pakistan-administered Kashmir to assess damages and the needs of victims.

In Islamabad, where two blocks of apartment buildings collapsed on hundreds of people, the PRCS deployed ten ambulances to transport the injured to hospital. Pakistan Red Crescent volunteers and medical staff are providing assistance on site and the PRCS blood bank is supplying blood to hospitals.

“The situation is still unclear since telecommunications are very bad and landslides have been reported, destroying roads and other infrastructure. We may face major logistical challenges because of the mountainous nature of the terrain and because of the power of the earthquake,” explains Federation Director of Operations, Susan Johnson. “We are placing emergency assessment, coordination and response teams on standby, to fly in as quickly as possible, as soon as we are requested to do so.”

For its part, the Indian Red Cross Society is also assessing the situation, in collaboration with the government.

 

[linuxgeek]

src

Relief organized after Asia quake

BALTIMORE (October 8, 2005 5:46 PM) —
Faith-based disaster response organizations were responding in the wake of a major Asian earthquake Saturday, even as aftershocks were continuing to strike the area.

The 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, triggering landslides, burying entire villages, and collapsing homes and apartment buildings. At least 3,000 people are dead, and the toll is expected to climb.

Dozens of homes, schools, mosques and government buildings were damaged. Thousands of injured people were taken to hospitals.

The worst damage appeared to be in Pakistan. The quake was centered in the mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, near the Indian border, about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad.

Northern Pakistani government officials reported severe damage. Early government assessments indicate several villages have been entirely destroyed. Pakistan army crews were conducting search-and-rescue operations - hampered by rain and hail - in the worst hit areas.

Damage was also reported in India - where at least 250 people were dead - and Afghanistan.

Aftershocks continued to rock the area through Saturday. The U.S. Geological Survey reported at least five aftershocks in Pakistan, with the strongest measuring magnitude 6.3 and located about 70 miles north of Islamabad.

The United Nations was working with all three affected countries on an emergency response to the quake.

Members of Action by Churches Together (ACT), a global alliance of churches and related agencies that respond to disasters, were assessing damages and planning a response.

Church World Service-Pakistan/Afghanistan (CWS-P/A) is monitoring the situation there through its offices in Kabul and Jalalabad. CWS-P/A was working in close coordination with international and local organizations, and with local authorities responding in the affected areas. CWS-P/A offices in Karachi, Islamabad, Mansehra and Murree were organizing relief efforts and planning to address needs on the ground.

CWS’s immediate plans were to provide 950 families with emergency food packages in the most affected and remote areas. CWS then plans to expand its relief efforts to provide 10,000 families with relief supplies and shelter construction materials.

 

[Matthew Craig]

There's so much misfortunate happening everywhere.

What me worry?

http://www.jafi.org.il/iq/6/neuman.jpg

 

[NaughtyLil1]

What me worry?

I would expect you to worry about this. I know you must be real busy feeding the starving children.

 

[Matthew Craig]

I would expect you to worry about this. I know you must be real busy feeding the starving children.

lol, my point in all that was people who complaint don't have it half as bad as they do.

 

[linuxgeek]

With the effects reaching into the Afgan regions, have to wonder if any of our troops got caught in the effects also.

 

[phrodeau]

Or Osama's.

 

[Hester]

that's one way to get them to stop fighting over kashmir---wipe it off the map

all kidding aside, the numbers of dead and injured are absolutely horrifying

 

[linuxgeek]

Or Osama's.

that would be kinda funny if the cave Osama is hiding in collapsed.

 

[linuxgeek]

Well, either this is just a general government problem reguardless of country, or they were watching the Katrina coverage...

----------------------------------------------

src

India quake survivors complain of slow aid

URI, India (AP) -- Angry villagers blocked roads in earthquake-ravaged regions of Indian-controlled Kashmir on Sunday, complaining the government was too slow in getting rescue and aid efforts to them.

Hundreds were known dead from the 7.7-magnitude earthquake that rocked South Asia on Saturday and rescue workers and soldiers were still pulling bodies from wreckage in the frontier Tangdar region, 65 miles north of Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir state.

While the worst of the quake's devastation came in neighboring Pakistan, where tens of thousands were reported dead, damage was severe in parts of Jammu-Kashmir.

Collapsed houses and shops line the streets in towns and villages nestled in Tangdar's deep valleys as well as in the towns of Uri, Punch and Srinagar. Hundreds of people were injured.

Most people spent the night in the open, lighting fires with wood pulled from fallen houses to keep warm in near-freezing temperatures.

Sonia Gandhi, head of India's governing political alliance, visited Uri on Sunday and talked with some of the injured in hospitals.

"We have come here to share your grief," she said.

Gandhi told reporters the immediate aim was to provide food and shelter, especially tents and blankets.

"The requirement is 40,000 blankets and tents so that those who have lost their houses get a shelter over their heads," she said.

The Indian army has flown in planeloads of medicine, food and drinking water to the worst-hit Baramulla district, said Jammu-Kashmir state's chief secretary, Vijay Bakaya. More than 1,000 tents were being distributed in remote villages flattened by the quake.

However, many people said they had received no help.

A crowd of some 200 people blocked the main road between Baramulla and Uri for about 45 minutes, demanding that journalists and soldiers with relief supplies go to their mountainside villages, which they said were being ignored.

"Everything is destroyed. The ground shook and took everything down," said Syad Hassan, pointing toward the peaks surrounding the valley road.

The quake killed at least 65 people in his home village of Namala and three neighboring hamlets, he said, but no aid had been provided to them.

"All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past," he said.

Kashmir's finance minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baig, said the government was doing its best.

"The quake caused a lot of damage to infrastructure and communication. And the weather also became bad, which hampered relief temporarily," he said, referring to heavy overnight rains.

Mud, debris and knee-high slush from landslides blocked roads, cutting off many remote villages.

Baig said the government had canceled vacations of officials, especially doctors, to bolster relief efforts.

"There might be some places where delays have occurred, but officials are also humans," he said.

Teams of doctors and Red Cross volunteers were traveling by road and on foot to remote areas in the mountains to provide emergency medical care, said Bakaya, the chief secretary.

The assurances made little difference to Farid Khan, a farmer in Jabla, a village about 70 miles north of Srinagar visited by an Associated Press correspondent.

"No one has come to help us," Khan said. "Yesterday, we buried 20 people in the village, including my five-year-old daughter. We don't know how many more people are lying under the debris."

Khan watched helplessly as his wife writhed in pain on a cot nearby, her ribs broken when their home collapsed.

 

[Willie Stroker]

18,000, and I think its more, is a shit load of people!!! That is so horrible I cant even think what that must be like.....

 

[linuxgeek]

src

Survivors Sought in South Asia Earthquake

BALAKOT, Pakistan (AP) -- Villagers desperate to find survivors dug with bare hands Sunday through the debris of a collapsed school where children had been heard crying beneath the rubble after a massive earthquake. Pakistani officials said the death toll ranged between nearly 20,000 and 30,000.

Pakistan's president called Saturday's magnitude-7.7 earthquake the country's worst on record and appealed for urgent help, particularly cargo helicopters to reach remote areas. Rival India, which reported more than 465 dead, offered assistance.

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

In mountainous Kashmir, the quake flattened dozens of villages and towns, crushing schools and mud-brick houses. The dead included 250 girls at a school razed to the ground and more than 200 Pakistani soldiers on duty in the Himalayas.

The quake was felt across a wide swath of South Asia from central Afghanistan to western Bangladesh. It swayed buildings in the capitals of three nations, with the damage spanning at least 250 miles from Jalalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern Indian territory. In Islamabad, a 10-story building collapsed.

"We are handling the worst disaster in Pakistan's history," chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.

Officials said Balakot was one of the hardest-hit areas. Near the ruins of one collapsed school, at least a dozen bodies were strewn on the streets of the devastated village of about 30,000. At least 250 pupils were feared trapped inside the rubble of the four-story school.

Dozens of villagers, some with sledgehammers but many without tools, pulled at the debris and carried away bodies. Faizan Farooq, a 19-year-old business administration student, said he had heard children under the rubble crying for help immediately after Saturday's disaster.

"Now there's no sign of life," he said Sunday. "We can't do this without the army's help. Nobody has come here to help us."

Helicopters and C-130 transport planes took troops and supplies to damaged areas Sunday. However, landslides and rain hindered rescue efforts, blocking roads to some remote areas.

There was no sign of government help in Balakot, in the North West Frontier Province about 60 miles north of Islamabad. The quake leveled the village's main bazaar, crushing shoppers and strewing gas cylinders, bricks, tomatoes and onions on the streets.

Injured people covered by shawls lay in the street, waiting for medical care. Residents carried bodies on wooden planks. The corpses of four children, aged between 4 and 6, lay under a sheet of corrugated iron. Relatives said they were trying to find sheets to wrap the bodies.

"We don't have anything to bury them with," said a cousin, Saqib Swati.

Elsewhere in Balakot, shop owner Mohammed Iqbal said two primary schools, one for boys and one for girls, also collapsed. More than 500 students were feared dead.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf appealed to the international community for medicine, tents, cargo helicopters and financial assistance.

"We do seek international assistance. We have enough manpower but we need financial support ... to cope with the tragedy," Musharraf said in Rawalpindi, a city near the capital Islamabad, before touring devastated areas.

He told the British Broadcasting Corp. the only way to reach many far-flung areas was by helicopter because roads were buried by landslides.

"Our helicopter resources are limited," he told the BBC. "We need massive cargo helicopter support."

The president said he knew of as many as 20,000 people killed, but "I wouldn't be able to make an accurate assessment for days."

The United States, the United Nations, Britain, Russia, China, Turkey, Japan and Germany all offered assistance. An eight-member U.N. team of top disaster coordination officials arrived in Islamabad on Sunday to plan the global body's response.

In Pakistan's northwestern district of Mansehra, police chief Ataullah Khan Wazir said Saturday that authorities there pulled 250 bodies from the rubble of a girls' school in the village of Ghari Habibibullah. Dozens of children were feared killed in other schools.

Mansehra was believed to be a hotbed of Islamic militant activity during the time the Taliban religious militia ruled neighboring Afghanistan. Al-Qaida operatives trained suicide squads at a camp there, Afghan and Pakistani officials told The Associated Press in 2002.

At least 215 Pakistani soldiers died in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir, Sultan said. On the India side of the border, at least 54 soldiers were killed when their bunkers collapsed, said Col. H. Juneja, an Indian army spokesman.

The only serious damage reported in Islamabad was the collapse of a 10-story apartment building, where at least 24 people were killed and dozens were injured. Doctors said the dead included an Egyptian diplomat, and the Japanese Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said two Japanese were killed.

On Sunday, Pakistani rescue teams pulled two survivors from the rubble. The boy and woman, who were listed in stable condition, told doctors others were trapped alive and calling for help beneath the debris.

"These people heard voices and cries during the whole night," said Adil Inayat, a doctor at PIMS hospital in Islamabad.

The death toll in India rose Sunday to 465 after rescue workers and soldiers pulled out 90 more bodies in the frontier Tangdar region, 65 miles north of Srinagar, the summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state. Most of the deaths were in the border towns of Uri, Tangdar and Punch and Srinagar, where the quake collapsed houses and buildings.

Hundreds of angry villagers blocked roads in the region Sunday, protesting the slow pace of rescue efforts. On the main road between Baramulla and the border town of Uri, locals demanded that journalists and soldiers with aid go to their mountainside villages.

"Everything is destroyed - the ground shook and took everything down," said Syad Hassan, pointing toward the peaks surrounding the valley road. "All the government people, the press people, they are just driving past."

Most people in Jammu-Kashmir spent the night in the open, lighting fires with wood pulled out from fallen houses to keep warm in the near-freezing temperatures.

Afghanistan reported four killed.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake was centered about 60 miles northeast of Islamabad, six miles below the forested mountains of Pakistani Kashmir. That was followed by at least 22 aftershocks within 24 hours, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor. Hospitals moved quake victims onto lawns, fearing more damage, and many people spent the night in the open.

India, a longtime rival of Pakistan, offered help and condolences in a gesture of cooperation. The nuclear rivals have been pursuing peace after fighting three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, two of them over Kashmir.

Afghanistan appeared to suffer the least damage. In its east, an 11-year-old girl was crushed to death when a wall in her home collapsed, police official Gafar Khan said. Three others also died.

The U.S. military said the quake was felt at Bagram, the main American base in Afghanistan, but there were no reports of damage at bases elsewhere.

 

[busybody..]

MooseLimb web sites are already saying that the US set off NUKES under Paki land

to KILL MooseLimbs

They said the same thing when the SUE-nah-ME hit!

 

[Willie Stroker]

MooseLimb web sites are already saying that the US set off NUKES under Paki land

to KILL MooseLimbs

They said the same thing when the SUE-nah-ME hit!

Are you saying thats not true??

 

[linuxgeek]

src

S. Asia Quake Damages 'Peace Bridge'
October 9, 2005, 10:42 AM EDT

SRINAGAR, India -- The newly reopened "Peace Bridge" linking the Indian and Pakistani portions of disputed Kashmir nearly collapsed during the South Asia earthquake, a blow to a symbol of the recent thawing of decades of tensions, officials said Sunday.

Damage to the span will disrupt bus service that was restored after a nearly 60-year lull between Srinagar, summer capital of India's Jammu-Kashmir state, and Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistani Kashmir, said an Indian army spokesman, Col. J.S. Juneja.

"Two piers of the Peace Bridge have been damaged on the Pakistani side and has sunk there. It is now unoperational," he said. "I would assume that even crossing the bridge by foot would be hazardous."

The white-colored metal bridge underwent repairs this year to fix damage sustained in the 1947-48 war between the two neighbors shortly after the new nation of Pakistan was carved out of the former British India.

Closed since that war, the reopened bridge became an icon of the advances in recent peace initiatives by India and Pakistan that have significantly reduced tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals, which have fought three wars, including two over Kashmir.

The 1947-48 war ended with the Himalayan territory divided, separating thousands of families on both sides of a cease-fire line that became a de facto border.

Many families had tearful reunions when the 220-foot bridge reopened in April with the launch of bus runs once every two weeks between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad.

But the buses had not been driving over the weak structure. Passengers disembarked at each end and walked across, boarding another bus to complete their trips.

Juneja said there was very little possibility the bus service could use the route on its next scheduled run Oct. 20.

During British colonial rule, the 100-mile Srinagar-Muzaffarabad highway was a major trade passage for the Kashmir Valley around Srinagar -- bringing in oil, salt and other key supplies from Muzaffarabad and linking tens of thousands of families.

The narrow road climbs up the mountains on the Pakistani side until it joins the Jhellum River. It winds along the riverside for 45 miles until it reaches Muzaffarabad.

Juneja said the highway has been blocked at many places by landslides triggered by the quake. "Things don't look too good," he said.

 

[busybody..]

Are you saying thats not true??

I would HATE to think we are so damn ineffective, as to kill ONLY 30,000 MooseLimbs

I would assume we can do 30 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then I would say

DO IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cathleen]

There's so much misfortunate happening everywhere.

Yes, it's incredible how much devestation has happened in such a short time. The amount dead starting with the tsunami last Christmas through this distaster boggles my mind. I find I have to shut down to it at times - it's just too much.

 

[OceanGoddess]

I try to avoid the tv and newspapers because one can only take so much tragedy . . .I send my donations in, and can't do much else to help from here.

I glanced down at the paper this morning though, and saw a photograph of three small children on a stretcher waiting for airlift to a hospital (earthquake survivors), one of them crying. It's horrible.

 

[linuxgeek]

Big difference in casualty/fatality totals between disasters with warning and without.

Whenever Cali has its next big one, the numbers will likely be stagering.

 

[hobbit.]

apparantly it was like being in a packed underground train when some lunatic set off a few kilos of home made explosive. or any other recent terrorist outrage aimed at innocent people. Ooops what i meant to say there was we should send this bunch of murdering bastards all the help we can, obviously we need them to breed all the radical fundamentalists they can bear to export.

 

[linuxgeek]

src
http://www.ifrc.org/common/images/ifrc_logo.gif

SOUTH ASIA: EARTHQUAKE
Appeal no. 05EA022
9 October 2005

THIS EMERGENCY APPEAL, ISSUED ON A PRELIMINARY BASIS, SEEKS CHF 10,793,000 (USD 8,438,294 OR EUR 6,957,415) IN CASH, KIND, OR SERVICES TO ASSIST 30,000 FAMILIES (SOME 120,000 BENEFICIARIES) FOR AN INITIAL PERIOD OF 4 MONTHS

CHF 200,000 HAS BEEN ALLOCATED FROM THE FEDERATION’S DISASTER RELIEF EMERGENCY FUND (DREF) TO MOUNT THE INITIAL RESPONSE; UNEARMARKED FUNDS TO REIMBURSE DREF ARE ENCOURAGED.

All International Federation assistance seeks to adhere to the Code of Conduct and is committed to the Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response in delivering assistance to the most vulnerable. For support to or for further information concerning Federation programmes or operations in this or other countries, or for a full description of the national society profile, please access the Federation’s website at http://www.ifrc.org

The situation

An earthquake with magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale centred 95 kilometres north-east of the Pakistan capital Islamabad struck at 0350 GMT on 8 October 2005. The quake has severely affected areas of Pakistan-administered Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province, also causing extensive damage and loss of life in Indian administered Kashmir.

The death toll in Pakistan according to Pakistan government officials had risen to approximately 18,000 by Sunday 9 October, with at least 40,000 people injured. Approximately 17,000 of the deaths are in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. The area capital, Muzaffarabad, has been severely hit, with 50 percent of the buildings destroyed. The main road into Muzaffarabad is cut off by landslides, and approximately forty percent of the affected areas are inaccessible due to landslides blocking roads, while there is severe disruption to communications.

In Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, there are reports of over 1,000 deaths. Hundreds of school students have been killed, with many schools entirely flattened by the quake.

Twenty-three bodies had been pulled from the ruins of two collapsed apartment blocks in Islamabad. To date 90 survivors have been found. The tower blocks were the only buildings to be destroyed in Islamabad. Earlier fears of hundreds being trapped were allayed as it transpired that most of the residents were outside when the quake struck.

The death toll in India as of mid-Sunday was approximately 350. The bulk of those killed were in the Uri sector of Baramulla in Indian-administered Kashmir. There have been three deaths in Afghanistan in Nangarhar province - one in Jalalabad and two in villages. There are reports of some injuries and structural damage, mainly in the provinces nearest to Pakistan.

The International Federation is launching this Emergency Appeal (no. 05EA022) in response to a request from the Pakistan Red Crescent Society. CHF 200,000 has been allocated from Federation’s DREF to mount the initial response. Given the size, scope, and geographic location of the disaster, and the difficulty in accessing the area to gather detailed damage information and humanitarian relief needs, this appeal is being launched on a preliminary basis with a focus on action in Pakistan. Further information will be provided shortly with Operations Updates reflecting Red Cross and Red Crescent action, as well as details on the evolving needs.

The needs

Immediate needs: Large numbers of people have been made homeless either through their dwellings being destroyed or severely damaged. Affected people require shelter, food, clothing and medicines.

Coordination
The two international components of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the International Federation and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are together coordinating the Movement’s response. The Pakistan Red Crescent Society is coordinating with Movement partners, the UN, NGOs and the Pakistan Government. Due to the militarily sensitive nature of large parts of the affected areas, the national society is liaising with the Pakistan Army to assist with transportation of relief goods to Mazaffarabad in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

.
.
.