PAKISTAN: One week after earthquake, rains compound misery of survivors, as international aid arrives in Islamabad, while prayers are held in mosque

Record ID: 848496

  • Title: PAKISTAN: One week after earthquake, rains compound misery of survivors, as international aid arrives in Islamabad, while prayers are held in mosque
  • Date: 15th October 2005
  • Summary: ALTAF S. MUSANI, REGIONAL ADVISER, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION (SOUNDBITE) (English) ALTAF S. MUSANI, REGIONAL ADVISER, WORLD HEALTH ORGANISATION, SAYING: "The issue is also, people were out, in the open. It is cold, it is raining, people need shelter and this will completely will effect the relief operations as well as increase the need on humanitarian scale."
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan
  • City:
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVAD3HFXKFRYW2GE8U53IBOTWJ8X
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Heavy rain in northern Pakistan on Saturday (October
    15) compounded both the misery of the survivors of last
    week's earthquake and the problems of those trying to help
    them, with helicopter flights severely disrupted and the
    danger of landslides again blocking roads the army has been
    struggling to clear.
    A week after the 7.6 magnitude quake killed more than
    20,000 people in northern Pakistan and India, most in
    Pakistani Kashmir, relief officials were still trying to
    assess the scale of the disaster while rushing to bring in
    help before winter sets in.
    In a university campus where a tent city has been set
    up, quake victims huddled around fires to protect
    themselves against the bitter cold.
    In one tent, Sajed Hussain Shakih held up a a
    their house collapsed during the quake.
    "Nothing is left. Only God is up there and the few
    friends who have survived and who are now with me. I have
    only memories of the past," said Sajed.
    For now, looking after hundreds of thousands of victims
    remains a priority, a task that is being made difficult by
    the bad weather.
    Altaf Musani, a senior World Health Organisation
    disaster official, said efforts to provide medical aid were
    being completely hampered by the rain and the dangers of
    disease being spread by poor sanitation was exacerbated.
    "The issues also, people were out, in the open. It is
    cold, it is raining, people need shelter and it completely
    will effect the relief operations as well as increase the
    need on humanitarian scale," said Musani.
    Hundreds of villages are still inaccessible by road,
    cut off after the quake triggered landslides that either
    swept mountain roads away or blocked them.
    Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir was
    devastated by the quake. Military officials estimate up to
    70 percent of the city's buildings have either collapsed or
    are uninhabitable.
    The civil administration has completely disintegrated,
    with personnel dead, injured or burying their own dead and
    looking after their families.
    Government offices have been destroyed and the city has
    no power or water. Virtually everyone is living out in the
    open, in parks, gardens and on sports fields.
    Outlying settlements across the region are also in
    ruins.
    Thousands have left the city on their own, travelling
    to the Pakistani lowland to stay with family and friends,
    but many people remain and they have been joined by
    survivors from devastated villages.
    Aid supplies arrived at Pakistan's Chaklala Airbase
    throughout the night and into the early hours of Saturday
    morning (October 15).
    In the Shah Faisal mosque, Islamabad's biggest mosque,
    prayers were held at 0852 local time (0352 gmt), the time
    the earthquake struck the previous Saturday.
    Pakistan raised the official death toll from the
    Kashmir earthquake to 38,000 on Saturday and said it was
    likely to rise further, putting it on the same massive
    scale of destruction as the Quetta earthquake of 1935.
    Between 30,000 and 60,000 people are estimated to have
    died in the Quetta quake, which almost destroyed the city
    completely, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
    Saturday's quake was the strongest to hit South Asia in
    a century at 7.6 magnitude and compared to the 2003
    earthquake in Bam, Iran, in which 31,000 people were
    killed.
    Pakistan military spokesman Shaukat Sultan said they
    had decided to raise the toll in Pakistani Kashmir and
    North West Frontier Province to 38,000 from 25,000 after
    confirming a higher death toll from remote mountain valleys
    and town of Balakot.
    Some 1,300 people are confirmed to have died in Indian
    Kashmir.
    The number of injured in Pakistan has also been raised
    to 62,000 from 51,000, Sultan said.
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