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Heavy rain slows earthquake aid in Asia
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-12 09:57
Heavy rain and hail grounded helicopters and stopped trucks loaded with
relief supplies Tuesday, imposing more misery on hungry, shivering earthquake
survivors as the United Nations warned of potentially lethal outbreaks of
measles, cholera and diarrhea.
Dazed, desperate villagers fought over food packages and looted trucks as the
first aid reached this devastated city in the mountains of Kashmir. The
Himalayan region was hardest-hit by Saturday's magnitude-7.6 quake.
The Pakistani government said the death toll from Pakistan's worst quake was
about 23,000, but a senior army official involved in the rescue operations and
local officials said estimates surpassed 35,000, with many bodies still buried
beneath piles of concrete, steel and wood. Millions were left homeless after
whole communities were flattened in the region touching Pakistan, India and
Afghanistan.
Three days after the quake, survivors still were being pulled from the rubble
of pancaked schools and houses by British, German, French and Chinese rescue
teams. A Red Cross official said people could survive under the rubble up to
five or even seven days.
A 75-year-old woman and her 57-year-old daughter were rescued after 80 hours
in the ruins of an Islamabad apartment tower, and a teenage boy was freed in the
northern town of Balakot.
"He's alive!" rescuers shouted with joy as people gave the boy food and water
and kissed him on the head. The air smelled of decomposing corpses.
The U.N. World Food Program began a major airlift of emergency supplies,
including high-energy bars to feed 240,000 people.
NATO agreed to coordinate an airlift of aid supplies from Europe. Eight U.S.
military helicopters based in neighboring Afghanistan shuttled 16 tons of food,
water, medical supplies and blankets to quake-hit zones, the military said.
Chinook and Black Hawk choppers flew 102 relief workers and others into the
region and evacuated 126 people, said Lt. Col. Jerry O'Hara, spokesman for the
U.S. base at Bagram, Afghanistan.
In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman said 25 to 30 more military helicopters
would be in Pakistan within days. The Islamabad government also requested
earthmovers, forklifts, bulldozers and trucks, spokesman Larry Di Rita said.
Kashmiri survivors weep as they arrive to see
family members near the Nisar military camp in northern Pakistani town of
Muzaffarabad, Tuesday Oct. 11, 2005.[AP] | The United Nations appealed for $272 million in donations, saying 2 million
people were homeless. The United States pledged $50 million, Japan $20 million,
Canada $17 million and Britain $3.5 million. Other nations donated more
helicopters, money and supplies, including tents, blankets, medical aid and food
kits.
"We as a nation are going through a challenging time," Pakistan Prime
Minister Shaukat Aziz said. "We are overwhelmed by the support we are getting
both within the country and outside the country and are thankful to those
countries, friends and individuals who have made our task easier."
Tuesday's efforts were hampered by torrential rains and hail in the mountains
of the Pakistani side of Kashmir, and crates of supplies sat on tarmacs waiting
to be delivered. At least one U.S. supply helicopter had to turn around because
of a rainstorm in the mountain passes, the military said.
"The recovery efforts have been slowed by bad weather and large parts of the
region are still inaccessible because landslides have destroyed the road
network," a U.N. statement said.
Bob McKerrow, coordinator of relief efforts for the International Federation
of the Red Cross, said in Islamabad that 17 trucks left for affected areas with
supplies, including blood.
"Some of the roads are just being reopened and this rain is not going to help
at all," McKerrow said. "And the possibility of further landslides blocking
roads is a threat every minute of the day."
The senior army official said that "according to our assessment, the death
toll is between 35,000 to 40,000 people." Tens of thousands were injured.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to
talk to the media about the toll. The estimate matched that of local officials.
Neighboring India said 1,300 people died in its part of Kashmir, the disputed
province at the center of two wars between New Delhi and Islamabad.
India planned to send a planeload of food, tents and medicine to its longtime
rival in what was seen as a boost to the peace process between the two
nuclear-armed neighbors. Islamabad, however, refused India's offer of
helicopters.
One of the places hardest-hit by the quake was Muzaffarabad, the capital of
Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, where most homes and all government buildings were
destroyed. Bodies were still in the streets.
The city had no electricity or running water and many of its 600,000 people
had no shelter with winter just six weeks away. Night temperatures have dropped
to the low 60s and people sought shelter under wrecked trucks and plastic
sheets.
Villagers came down from their devastated mountain homes carrying injured
children, hoping to get them on helicopter flights to Islamabad. The World
Health Organization said field hospitals were being set up to treat the injured.
Turkish doctors, medics from the group Doctors without Borders and assessment
teams from other international agencies were working in the city. But the effort
seemed nowhere near to meeting the overwhelming need.
About 10 trucks brought by Pakistani charities and volunteers rumbled into
Muzaffarabad, where efforts by relief workers to distribute aid turned chaotic
as residents scuffled for the handouts of cooking oil, sugar, rice, blankets and
tents. Some jumped the trucks and pulled supplies out.
Police looked on helplessly as more than 200 people raided a stock of food
arranged by relief workers at a soccer field near the city center — one of six
designated aid distribution points. One man took a big sack of sugar and another
left on a motorized rickshaw with a crate of drinking water.
"I can't wait for the food to be distributed properly," said Ali Khan, a
construction worker who has barely eaten for days. "I need it desperately and
I'll take it."
Others desperate to reach a hospital looted gas from a hole in the ground,
using an improvised pulley system of plastic bottles.
Religious opposition leaders said the Pakistani army and government were
failing to coordinate with civilian relief efforts. Qazi Hussein Ahmed said the
army should withdraw troops from Waziristan, where it is fighting
al-Qaida-linked groups.
The quake damaged sanitation systems, destroyed hospitals and left many
victims with no access to clean drinking water, making them more vulnerable to
disease.
"Measles could potentially become a serious problem," WHO spokeswoman Fadela
Chaib said in Geneva. "We fear that if people huddle closely together in
temporary shelters and crowded conditions, more measles cases could occur."
Measles — potentially deadly for children — already are endemic in the region
and only 60 percent of children are protected. At least 90 percent coverage is
needed to prevent an epidemic, WHO said. The agency will soon start gathering
essential vaccines for a mass immunization program.
Rescue teams used high-tech cameras and lifting gear to search for survivors
under debris. They also were simply yelling inside the rubble.
"Hello! Rescue team here! Can you hear us?" one German rescuer shouted in
Muzaffarabad.
At the collapsed 10-story Margalla Towers in Islamabad, teams pulled
57-year-old Khalida Begum and her mother, Mahbibi, to safety after 80 hours. At
least two dozen people died there.
"Thanks to God, my family is safe," Khalida Begum said. "As far as I know,
all my family is safe now, thank God. I'm so happy."
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