Re: Earthquake Death Toll Rises to 79,000/ strong aftershocks felt
the unofficial figure must be almost twice as much :( coz many people are still missing and under rubbles.
Earthquake raises security concern for Pakistan’s capital
Earthquake raises security concern for Pakistan’s capital
(source:http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051020/wl_sthasia_afp/quakesasiapakistancapital_051020051823)
ISLAMABAD (AFP) - When Islamabad was built more than four decades ago near the Himalayan foothills, Pakistan rejected concerns that its leafy new capital would be prone to major earthquakes.
Those worries returned with a vengeance when a massive quake struck this month with an epicentre just 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Islamabad, home to the president, prime minister and parliament and near the military headquarters of the nuclear power.
“Obviously it has raised the level of risks because the entire government is based in Islamabad,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
Tens of thousands of people died across northern Pakistan, including at least 66 in Islamabad in the collapse of the Margalla Towers, a 10-storey complex that had been part of the city’s high-rise building boom.
“The building laws will have to be upgraded. Islamabad will have to be moved from a category of a minor earthquake threat to higher risk,” said Capital Development Authority advisor Maqbool Elahi Malik.
Islamabad, which is now home to just under a million people, was opened in 1966 in the Margalla hills with wide avenues, ample greenery and temperate weather – a nearly unique phenomenon in South Asia.
(…)
The location, with the Himalayas just beyond it, was considered relatively safe from air attack in a war with India.
But Constantinos A. Doxiadis, the Greek urban planner who designed Islamabad, submitted a report in 1959 to the Pakistani government that warned the location was prone to earthquakes.
“Based on historical data assembled in collaboration with the meteorological department, it is known that the site of the new capital is in a fairly active seismic region,” the report seen by AFP said.
But a government report the same year said that the epicenter of previous earthquakes was “far enough to render them relatively harmless in Islamabad”.
It said Islamabad did not need any special structural safeguards for the construction of ordinary one- or two-storey buildings, but it recommended protecting against quakes in multi-storey complexes.
After the collapse of the Margalla Towers, many developers are reassessing their plans for more high-rise buildings in Islamabad, whose population has rapidly grown since the 1990s.
Pakistan has said its government and military infrastructure in Islamabad and Rawalpindi was untouched by the earthquake and that it had no effects on its nuclear arsenal.
But the nation is set to look at ways to defend against the closer than expected threat.
“Islamabad is placed in Category Three meaning moderate hazard and minor damages in case of an earthquake. But this will have to be redefined following the October 8 quake,” meteorological department chief Qamaruz Zaman told AFP.
“It will take few months and Islamabad may go higher in the risk category since the epicenter was closer to what had been studied before,” Zaman said.
IMO this should be very helpful for all the concerned people, whose freinds or family lives in the affected areas. I also checked out the donation area, looks quite good, tells you exactly what you can do with your money.
WASHINGTON, Oct 20: An information-sharing web portal — Pakistan Relief and Information Systems for Earthquakes (RISE) — was launched this week to provide information about the 4,000 earthquake-affected villages in the largely rural areas of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir.
RISE has been developed and will be maintained by a consortium of experts drawn from American and Pakistani universities, the World Bank and the private sector with support from the government of Pakistan.
It will provide up-to-date information about the affected villages from agencies, relief workers, local officials, and anyone with access to immediate village-level data that will critically support the current coordination of relief.
“Real-time information from the villages is essential. District-level information is helpful, but details about each and every village will make sure no one is left out,” said John Wall, World Bank Country Director for Pakistan.
The portal offers pre-earthquake information showing village-level demographic and infrastructure data, major road networks and the distance of every village from the epicentre of the earthquake. Each of the 4,000 villages is also listed under a table of common headings, including everything from amount of aid received to agencies working in the area.
Mr Wall said RISE was truly a remarkable and spontaneous collaboration by a range of academics and development practitioners. “This portal will be the key to coordination among donors and relief agencies, and The World Bank will certainly use it extensively to plan our follow-up support to Pakistan,” he added.
The web portal is a joint effort by experts from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Harvard University and Pomona College in the US, the World Bank, Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority, Mahbubul Haq Human Development Centre, and World Online, Pakistan’s largest internet provider which is hosting the web portal.
“All the latest satellite, geographical and statistical information at the village-level for the affected areas is now consolidated in one database,” said Aamer Manzoor, Co-Founder and Vice-President of World Online. “The world-wide collaboration enabled us to work round-the-clock with the best experts in the field.”
Relief workers, donors, the government, and volunteers can provide information by directly posting information on www.risepak.com by sending text messages, faxes, e-mails, or calling any of the listed phone numbers.
Re: www.risepak.com
nice :k:
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
One more big aftershock struck same area of Mingora/Islamabad @ 6.0 Richter scale around 8:04PM (Oct 23) local time.
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
Earthquake Information site
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
thz gizzy.
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
a very good site
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
^-- indeed. You can even send emails to certain ímportant' people. I will add this site on the GS earthquake relief fund site.
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
Eid rush slows down transport of relief
Got this forwarded:
(source:UAE Latest News, Breaking News, Local News | Khaleej Times)
DUBAI — Transportation of aid to quake-hit Pakistan has run into a couple of glitches, temporarily slowing down the flow of relief to that country from the UAE.
Eid is partly to blame. More and more people are travelling to Pakistan to be with families during Eid, and this has cut down on space for aid goods in aircraft even as airports in Pakistan are saturated with tonnes and tonnes of aid-material.
It is somewhat a similar situation at the Dubai International Airport, with tonnes of relief goods waiting to be carried to destinations in Pakistan.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Abbas Raza Dar, Country Manager of Air Blue, said, “There is a huge backlog of goods at the Karachi Airport. The number of direct flights to Islamabad from the UAE is less because several relief and rescue aircraft are frequenting the airport, so there are no parking stops for normal carriers. We also have instructions not to carry relief goods in huge quantities to ensure the smooth flow of aid.”
Three weeks after the massive earthquake hit Pakistan, relief work and donations from the Pakistan expat community are also slowing down, mainly because air carriers are now facing a shortage of space.
A Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) official said, “Each year during the Eid season, we witness a surge of passengers flying to celebrate Eid with their families in Pakistan. From the UAE, each passenger is allowed a minimum baggage allowance of 50kg. But with the rush there is no space for cargo. The airline is already operating two extra flights to cope with the rush.”
PIA has been transporting relief goods free of charge from the UAE for the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund.
Speaking to Khaleej Times, Tanvir Khawaja, chief organiser of the Joint Relief Committee of the Pakistani community, said that goods were being transported in other airlines including Emirates, Gulf Air, Air Blue and Aero Asia because the major portion of goods was supposed to be delivered to NGOs. “Until now, all these airlines have cooperated with us and carried our goods, but now because of the Eid rush we are only allowed space for five tonnes.” He said Pakistani expats should from now on only send the most needed relief items to Pakistan till the problem of transportation was resolved.
Also, with the passage of time, donations too have dwindled. “We have to now personally call up people to come forward and donate because the need of the people suffering in Pakistan is not yet over,” said Shahidul Islam, General-Secretary of the Pakistan Association in Dubai.
The Head of Chancery at the Consulate-General of Pakistan, Imran Mirza, said, “Already 1,000 tonnes of goods have been transported by chartered airlines and even by sea. Donations have fallen in recent days.”
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
Children in Muzaffarabad’s front line
By Neil Arun
BBC News, Muzaffarabad
Awaiz Asmat had expected to receive a new pair of shoes for Eid this year, replacing his tattered old trainers.
Barely days before the big festival, his mother watched as those old trainers were drawn from the rubble of the school, along with the crushed body of her 12-year-old son.
A final burial was arranged four weeks after he died for a boy who had impressed his teachers with his memory of the Koran and infuriated his mother with demands for sweet cola drinks and a precocious taste for chewing tobacco.
“At least now I have a grave I can pray at,” says his mother, Musarrad, tears streaming down her face.
The family says it lost nine members - mostly children - to the earthquake that levelled this city four weeks ago, at the onset of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
In shock
MUZAFFARABAD QUAKE IMPACT
Pakistan death toll: 73,276
Death toll in Muzaffarabad district: 33,724
Population of Muzaffarabad district in 2002: 833,000
Children killed by quake: 17,000
Sources: Unicef; local government
Detailed map of quake zone
As Ramadan approaches its climax with the festival of Eid, there is little festive cheer in this household.
Musarrad says she has nothing to live for - her husband died a decade ago and the sewing school she worked in to support her family was destroyed in the quake.
She rests her head on the younger of her two surviving sons, Ahsaan. Thirteen-year-old Ahsaan is silent and withdrawn, half the hairs on his head turned white by shock.
He too was meant to have been at school on the day of the earthquake - but arriving late, he instead ended up playing in the yard and was spared the fate of his brother.
“Only 14 out of 40 children escaped that classroom alive,” he murmurs, staring at the floor.
Games in the dust
According to the United Nations’ children’s fund, Unicef, children account for almost one-third of deaths in the earthquake.
Unicef teams in Muzaffarabad have been working with some of the quake’s most vulnerable victims - the children, many themselves injured, who survived to see their friends buried.
Shabnam (r) clasps her wounded left eye as her mother looks on
Near a school set up in a tent, we are introduced to Shabnam, a 12-year-old with a hand permanently clasped against a wounded left eye.
“I went upstairs to fetch a pen for my teacher when the school’s floor began to shake like a swing,” she says.
Her mother found her covered in blood and keeps hugging her, grateful she survived. “She used to pester us to buy her new clothes every Eid,” says her mother. “But this year she has asked for nothing.”
A crowd gathers around the tent school and more tales of loss emerge.
But among the sobbing adults, there are also some smiling faces - the first I have seen all day. These are children too young to grieve, devising new games in the dust of the refugee camps.
The young who were at the front line of Kashmir’s earthquake are raising the first laughs from its rubble.
(source:BBC NEWS | South Asia | Laptop link-up: Muzaffarabad's plight)
Re: Earthquake in Pakistan/International Relief/After Shocks (merged threads)
From the same source:
Laptop link-up: Quake aftermath
On Friday 4 November, four weeks after the devastating South Asian earthquake, BBC News will be hosting a live link-up with people in the city of Muzaffarabad, which was virtually demolished by the disaster.
As part of the link-up, children from schools in the British city of Bradford, which has a large Pakistani population, will put their questions to earthquake survivors in Muzaffarabad.
With more than 100,000 homes destroyed, much of the city still lies in ruins and there are fears that proper shelter and medical supplies will not arrive before the harsh winter sets in.