Tenacious Paks refuse to stop. May Allah bless everyone helping in the area. Amen.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/14/news/quake-5427833.php
Even as hope wanes, Pakistanis press search for quake survivors
The New York Times, The Associated Press
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2005
ISLAMABAD Pakistani officials and rescue teams said Friday that they would continue hunting for survivors under the rubble as thunderstorms forecast for the region threatened to disrupt relief efforts for millions left homeless and hungry following the earthquake.
Aid workers held mass burials and rushed to set up tent camps for an estimated two million homeless people before the rains hit in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
“The effort to pull people out of the debris is continuing,” said Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military. “Today, our focus is to move to far-off areas, whether by helicopters, on animals or through roads. If there are injured, they will be brought back for medical treatment.”
He denied earlier reports from Muzaffarabad, where officials were quoted as saying that the rescue operations had been halted because chances of finding anyone alive were “very slim.”
“No decision has been taken to discontinue the search for survivors,” he said.
Doctors in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, said on Friday that at least 71 amputations had been carried out on earthquake victims whose wounds became infected. Doctors predicted that with each passing day, infections and amputations, would grow.
“They are increasing day by day,” said Brigadier Ahmad Nadeem, the head of the Combined Military Hospital, which has received over 2,000 earthquake patients. “We may need to have more artificial limbs.”
The rising amputation count came as UN officials said they still did not how many injured people remained trapped in mountainous areas six days after the 7.6-magnitude earthquake devastated parts of northern Pakistan.
“We still don’t know the condition of people in the most remote areas,” said Rachel Lavy, a World Health Organization official. “There could be thousands more injured.”
Injured evacuees brought by helicopter Friday to hospitals near the Pakistani capital of Islamabad said large numbers of victims, as well as isolated survivors, remained in their villages.
“Helicopters have not been to my village,” said Abdul Qayyum, who carried his newly paralyzed wife almost 30 kilometers, or nearly 20 miles, with six other men to reach a helipad.
At the same time, UN and Pakistani officials said more than 5,000 injured hurricane victims already in the Islamabad area have filled local hospitals to capacity. They said efforts were underway to find new places to house additional victims, or establish field hospitals in remote quake-affected areas.
A day after UN officials called for a tripling of the 50 helicopters being used to evacuate victims, two American military helicopters joined the evacuation effort, which is now focused on outlying areas. Pakistani officials said rescue teams continued to search for survivors on Friday, although hopes for their survival were fading fast.
Miracles continue to occur, aid workers said. On Friday, a one-and-a-half-year-old girl was pulled out of the piled wreckage of her house in Mansehra, one of the quake-stricken districts in North-West Frontier Province, according to a Pakistani television channel.
Mazhar Hussain, the head of the rescue team, told the channel that the girl was found under a collapsed door that acted as a shield against debris. Her two brothers were found dead, but her father was alive and elated at finding his daughter was rescued, Hussain said. “She clung to a doctor in the rescue team and would not stop crying,” Hussain said.
Other reports pointed to more grim news. The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the isolated valleys of Neelam and Leepa appeared to be even more damaged than areas reached by government and aid workers. More than half of the population in those two valleys is believed to be dead, according to reports in the Pakistani media.
Pakistanis observed a day of prayer for the dead and injured on Friday, the Muslim holy day. Officials now put the death toll at more than 35,000 in Pakistan. India has reported more than 1,350 deaths on the side of Kashmir it controls. The earthquake was one of the worst disasters in the region’s history.
On Friday, the Meteorological Department warned of bad weather in the coming days, which will worsen an already difficult situation for victims. Rain and hail are expected and concerns have mounted for those without shelter. The weather will also complicate efforts by helicopter teams to ferry injured people to hospitals.
In Islamabad, the police began a criminal investigation Friday into the collapse of a 10-story luxury apartment that toppled during the earthquake, killing at least 40 residents. It was the only structure that collapsed in the Pakistani capital.
“We will arrest all those who didn’t perform their duty well,” said the city police chief, Sikandar Hayat.
Pakistanis have donated generously. Dozens of charities across the country are collecting food and medicine, with sports stars and television actors joining in. However, caravans of private civilians rushing to help victims in destroyed villages and towns have clogged many roads, hampering official relief efforts.
Water and electricity were restored to parts of Muzaffarabad, a city of about 600,000. The authorities were also working to fix grid stations to bring power back to outlying villages.
The country’s relief commissioner, Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan, said Pakistan expected to get two million blankets and 100,000 large tents before the onset of winter. He said 200,000 houses had been destroyed.