More than 18,000 dead in devastating South Asia quake
Last Updated Sun, 09 Oct 2005 01:45:13 EDT
CBC News
More than 18,000 people were killed in a powerful earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Saturday. A Pakistani army spokesperson called the devastation the largest catastrophe in his country's history.


A woman sits outside her house in Uri, about 100 km north of Srinagar, India. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Of the 18,000 dead, 17,000 were in Pakistani Kashmir, where the quake was centred and where rescuers struggled to dig people from the wreckage. They faced difficult work Sunday as rain and hail turned the debris into sticky mess.

Some 41,000 people were injured said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's chief army spokesperson. "The death toll is gradually rising."

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.


At least 1,600 people died in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province, said its top elected official, Akram Durani.

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.

On Saturday, army soldiers and local volunteers were rescuing people from under the debris of collapsed houses. Telephone lines were down. Bridges were cracked, but were still being used.

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 Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistani President 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.


Rescue work at a collapsed 10-story apartment building in Islamabad, Pakistan. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)
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 web site 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.

I am just reading about this on cnn. How awful for those people. They definitely need our prayers.

Lenise

Quake toll rises as weather hits aid
Saturday, October 15, 2005; Posted: 8:26 a.m. EDT (12:26 GMT)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The death toll in the South Asian earthquake has risen to nearly 40,000 in Pakistan alone, while wintry conditions hampered relief efforts and compounded the misery of millions of homeless victims a week after the disaster.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the toll -- 38,000 dead and 62,000 injured in Pakistan -- would probably climb as rescue and recovery teams finally reached more communities. In India, 1,300 deaths have been reported.

"I think it will keep rising when we go into the valleys," the president told a news conference Saturday.

Musharraf said tents were desperately needed to help shelter an estimated 2 million homeless survivors ahead of the harsh Himalayan winter.

"The main thing we need is tents," said the president. "We are asking everyone to give us tents."

Heavy rain fell Saturday in many quake-hit towns and snow fell in mountains nearby, disrupting relief efforts.

Helicopter relief flights -- which have been ferrying supplies into the quake zone and ferrying out the injured -- was briefly halted Saturday morning although no flights were operating to the northern town of Balakot where the weather was particularly bad.

The Associated Press reported that hundreds of people, many of them injured, were waiting by the helipad, hoping for the weather to clear.

Last weekend's 7.6 magnitude quake has prompted rival nations to put aside their differences -- at least for the moment -- to help the tens of thousands of people left homeless.

India, which has fought three wars with Pakistan since 1947, sent a plane loaded with humanitarian supplies on Friday to Lahore. It was the second shipment to its nuclear rival. And when an Iranian plane arrived at Chakalala air base in Pakistan, it sought help with unloading the cargo from U.S. military personnel already on site.

"I said, 'Certainly, no question about it,' " said Col. Richard Walberg of the U.S. Air Force. "I sent my team over behind the airplane with our loaders, and they brought some equipment off." (Watch efforts to get aid to hard-hit areas -- 2:40)

Walberg said he was proud to do it, and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.

"When I put this uniform on, the American taxpayer pays my salary," he said. "And I have two choices: I can go to war in this uniform, and I'm very good at that, or I can help people, and I'm very good at that.

"So, let's take option two every time."

Militant violence, however, had not ceased in the region. Early Saturday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, militants killed two Indian army soldiers and wounded six others when they threw grenades and opened fire on soldiers after entering an Indian army camp in the town of Kathua, according to state police sources.

Meanwhile, despite the weather, relief operations were working at a fever pitch, with helicopters and other equipment trying to rush supplies to the hardest-hit areas. Roads to many areas were clogged with traffic, slowing ground efforts to reach the most vulnerable.

President Musharraf said earlier almost 2.5 million people were homeless as a result of the quake. (Watch Musharraf faces tough test after quake -- 2:19)

The Pakistan government on Friday announced it had officially called off rescue operations.

"From now the search and recovery operation is being launched as there is a very slim chance of finding any survivors in the rubble" six days after the quake, Maj. Farooq Nasir told AP.

At one point late Friday, a magnitude 5.0 aftershock sent quake-weary people fleeing into the streets. No major damage was reported.

Pakistani Army Maj. Gen. Javed Aslam said the worst damage was spread over a 125 mile (200 km) by 190 mile (305 km) area and required a well-coordinated relief effort. He said about 70 helicopters were being used to get supplies to the region.

"The size of the operations is massive," he said.

Rear Adm. Michael Lefever, the head of operations for the U.S. Navy, said, "It's great to show our allies that they have given us wonderful support, and we are supporting them in their operations to save lives."

In Washington, U.S. President George W. Bush visited the Pakistani Embassy as a show of support, signing a condolence book while there.

"We want to help in any way we can," he said. "There's been a lot of loss of life, and Americans pray for those families who have lost a loved one."

He added: "Not only will we offer our prayers, but we'll offer our help -- to help the people, to help the government, to help this great nation get back on its feet."

The Cabinet has said it will set up a tent village for thousands of Pakistanis left homeless by the quake. Musharraf said reaching the displaced people is the nation's priority.

It was not clear where the tent village will be constructed.

The disaster already has cost Pakistan billions of dollars, the Cabinet said, and international donors have given $360 million to help offset that cost.

Some 40,000 Pakistani troops have been moved into the area "to make sure the distribution mechanism (for relief items) improves, and it is improving by the day," according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.

Meanwhile, aid workers told CNN on Friday that looting and heavy fighting, including gunfire and small explosions, erupted overnight in Muzaffarabad, a devastated Himalayan city. People from outlying areas, who had come to the city seeking relief items, were blamed for the violence.

The United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, toured the devastated area Thursday and told CNN's Matthew Chance that immediate resources -- mainly helicopters and tents -- are needed to keep people alive.

"People are dying as we speak because we're not there in all of these villages where there are wounded people," Egeland said.

In his aerial tour, he said, he saw "town after town destroyed."

"I fear we're losing this cruel race against time to reach those outlying villages," he said.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, a delivery of clothing set off a scramble among people left with nothing. The Indian army, already deployed on the front lines in Kashmir, has taken the lead in ensuring aid gets into the right hands.

Officials say weather-resistant tents are needed most in the region, which gets 15 feet (5 meters) of snow every winter.

"The clothes, the rations, the stores -- which you are seeing -- is most welcome," said Indian Army Lt. Col. Anupam Bhagi. "But that's not exactly what is required now. This can be used for the needs of the destitute but not for those who've lost the roof on top of their heads."

From 18,000 to 40,000. Unbelievable that for the most part we are unaffected and do not mourn with those that mourn. Thanks for the update.