7.6 magnitude earthquake early this morning in Pakistan

[cefarix]

The turnout of the people everywhere has been really amazing to me. So much aid has been received and is still coming (40 more helicopters are coming in tomorrow) from the international community. And from within Pakistan, it seems almost every person capable of donating something is doing so. I just saw an interview on the news with a government official from Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), and he is saying that the number 1 thing needed are tents, because almost all the people that survived the earthquake have either had their homes completely destroyed or structurally unsound to live in, and are living out in the open. With winter fast approaching, its imperitive that tents be gotten to the people. Only after the tents have gotten there, can stuff like blankets, clothes, milk, water, and rice be useful. He also mentioned that among the medical supplies, the most needed are to treat bone fractures, antibiotics, and wound repair tools. The death toll from the collapsed apartment tower in Islamabad has risen to 39 with the removal of 2 more dead bodies from the debris. For the moment, search and rescue operations have been suspended because any further removal of debris might cause the second tower to collapse on the first (the second tower has tilted over and is now leaning on the debris of the first). A couple of aftershocks of magnitude 4.0 were felt today in the largest city of Pakistan, Karachi. This is amazing because Karachi is right on the coastline over 2000 km from where the initial earthquake was. Thankfully, there was no damage whatsoever. On a brighter side, electricity will be begin to restored to intact areas of Muzaffarabad by tomorrow. The Pakistan Air Force has also established a forward relief base at Muzaffarabad to support operations into remote areas of Kashmir. There is now so much relief flowing into Muzaffarabad for Muzaffarabad and from there on to the rest of Kashmir, that traffic jams of supply trucks miles long have formed.

 

[cefarix]

Good news: Donations of supplies by people in the port city of Karachi to the PAF Museum collection alone have reached the level of 130 C-130 transport planes in just 2 days.
Bad news: The aid is not getting to the victims fast enough, and there are only 2 C-130 transport planes available from Karachi which are making daily trips.

 

[Lisa!]

Thank you cefarix and hypatia. I just received my friend's email, he's ok since hewas far from northeast where the earthquake's happened. He's said a child was found alive 102 hours after the disaster.

 

[hitssquad]

200,000 dead.
http://pakistantimes.net/2005/10/13/top.htm

Scale of Gravity

The gravity of the massive shock has started to filter in. Starvation, disease, injuries, biting cold, anger, depression, breakdown of law and order and now heavy rain haunt survivors of Saturday’s devastating earthquake in which over 200,000 people are feared dead.

 

[pattylou]

I hadn't heard the 200,000 number. Wow!

this morning I had to google for the latest on this earthquake. It turns out there have been two more aftershocks, and the death tolls that I have been following have jumped from 54,000 yesterday to 79,000 today, as a result.

I don't understand why our headlines are dominated with Wilma (I recognize she could be even worse than Katrina) when tens of thousands of people died in aftershocks today in Pakistan. Where are the appeals for aid?

Cefarix, are you OK?