October 09, 2005

7.6 tremor hits S. Asia. Pakistan has the largest causalties--around 18,000 people dead and 41,000 wounded. India and Afghanistan were also affected with several hundred dead. Buildings in the capitol cities of all three countries swayed for a full minute.

India has offered assistance to Pakistan in its time of need. Any monkeys in these affected areas please check in.

posted by patita 19 years ago
  • 18,000, plus 41,000. Unbearable. And, I suspect the numbers will get bigger.
  • It's always the poorest who are hardest hit.
  • This is so sad, my brain has trouble fastening on it. I'm glad to see India has offered aid though, may relations between the two countries continue to improve.
  • Ah jeez. This will only get worse. I will be hoping all day for the best. Though it's certainly nice to see nations putting differences aside to help.
  • Along with hurricane Stan with death tolls expected to rise to about 2,000, it seems that nature is trying to get it's revenge for all of us using it for so long. It's good to see India and Pakistan working together for once.
  • .
  • Yesterday I was up at 4:30 am helping my husband get ready to go to the airport, and I saw that "about a hundred" had died in a quake. My poor sleep-deprived brain was so pleased the numbers were low, even though that was clearly only hours after it had happened, and thus, the numbers were low. Still, when I went to bed last night, they were holding at 3000, which I already thought impossible. To wake up this morning now, and see the numbers, well, I'm completely blown away. And Stan's numbers are definitely going up; there were 1400 in one village alone that all died in a mudslide. Unbelievable. If any monkeys are affected, personally or family is there, if you need anything at all, please let us know.
  • It's always the poorest who are hardest hit. Sad, sad, sad. On good days, or when I hear good news, I'm an agnostic. News like this and I'm back to atheist in about .65 seconds.
  • The first quake was followed over the next 18 hours by more than 20 aftershocks with magnitudes of between 4.5 and 6.3. That's an incredible display of geologic power. It's amazing anyone could survive that kind of ground shift. My prayers are with the people over there.
  • .
  • Damn. Please, no more.
  • There will be many more, I think. Lately, nature seems to be giving herself an enema -- starting with the most vulnerable. We'll see what the flu season brings.
  • Here's a map to get a handle on where the hardest hit areas are. Official toll up to 23,000, and the weather is making relief efforts impossible in some areas. This seems like a good time to mention that there are several aid organizations active in the area, and they could really use some funding now. This article tals about the funding situation and gives links to charities active in the region. I'll add Mercy Corps as an organization that helped tremendously after the Iranian earthquake in 2003 and after the tsunami last year.
  • There were so many threads about Katrina. So few about this one, where many more have died. The world is very unfair. I know this. But I am not resigned.
  • Anyone know any good charities to send money/food/stuff to? I'd rather donate to one of the smaller ones than the big organisations.
  • I've seen estimates that 4 million people are now homeless, which to me means the IRC, UNICEF etc. since air lifting supplies, field hospitals etc is the first step. Six days and they haven't even reached some areas because of the destruction of roads. Not good. And winter coming. The embassies of the affected countries might offer suggestions, Alnedra.
  • Mercy Corps, which I linked to above, operates with 92% of what you send going directly to relief efforts. Here they explain exactly what they are doing in Pakistan and where they have set up a base of operations. According to the linked article, they are the only NGO set up in that area. They have trucks of food due to arrive sometime tonight and trucks with tents due to arrive some time tomorrow in the Seraan Valley north of Muzzafarabad (which is almost at the epicenter on this map). There are probably other good charities out there, but these are the only folks I've had experience with in the past.
  • I gave to Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). They had a team there already at the time for another operation, and they are diverting emergency funds to help the relief operation. Currently they're distributing supplies and medical care. These guys are top-notch, if the Nobel Peace Prize (which I feel was undisputably deserved) didn't tip you off. If they collect more money than needed for their relief operations, they'll use the money for different exceptional programs worldwide. Lots more info is on the site.
  • A couple of local blogs with reports of current conditions and links to aid organisations: Pakquake Quakehelp
  • The Earthquake Relief Info site had links to more bloggers based in Karachi and Lahore (near the bottom of the page). Karachi is heavily involved in relief work, as explained in this post from pakquake.com.
  • Dozens of anxious Kashmiris queued up on Wednesday to speak to relatives on the Pakistani side after India opened phone lines for the first time in nearly 16 years to link families hit by this month's quake. [link]
  • A global candlelight vigil for earthquake victims is planned for the night of Nov. 8. For more details: yourdil.org/vigil/ saquake.org