Earthquake Reports
Looting Breaks Out in Wake of Deadly Quake
Shopkeepers clashed with looters Monday, and hungry families huddled under tents while waiting for relief supplies after Pakistan’s worst earthquake razed entire villages and buried roads in rubble.
Eight U.S. military helicopters from Afghanistan arrived in Islamabad with provisions, and Washington pledged up to $50 million in relief and reconstruction aid, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said.
“The magnitude of this disaster is utterly overwhelming,” Crocker said. “We have under way the beginning of a very major relief effort.”
The United Nations said more than 2.5 million people were left homeless by Saturday’s 7.6-magnitude quake, and doctors warned of an outbreak of disease unless more relief arrives soon.
‘Whole generation’ lost in quake
A road has been re-opened into Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir where 11,000 are thought to have died, allowing trucks to deliver food and medical supplies.
The BBC’s Aamer Ahmed Khan in Muzaffarabad says two international rescue teams pulled out a 12-year-old boy alive on Monday morning, two days after he was buried by rubble.
But people are becoming more and more desperate in the city, he says, with supply trucks mobbed and reports of looting at damaged shops and homes.
140 tremors rock Pakistan
Over 140 aftershocks have rocked Pakistan since a powerful earthquake left thousands of people dead and flattened entire villages, seismic experts said here on Sunday. Pakistan’s seismic and weather experts recorded over 140 aftershocks, with 21 over 5 magnitude on the Richter scale, since yesterday’s massive quake which killed over 18,000 people and injured around 42,000.
The recurring tremors, some of them lasting few seconds, triggered panic in some areas. A large contingent of mediapersons waiting for Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao’s briefing ran out in panic as a tremor shook the Information Ministry’s building.
Source: South Asia Quake Help through Times Of India
Seismic activity to continue for next 24-36 hrs
Dr Ch Qamar Zaman, the director-general Meteorological Office said that 150 aftershocks of the devastating October 8 earthquake had been recorded by 8:30 pm Sunday (October 9) while the activity is likely to continue for the next 24 to 36 hours.
Talking to The News, he said the last aftershock that was recorded at 1:30 pm on Sunday was the strongest and showed 5.9 on the Richter scale. He said the next 24 to 36 hours are the “critical period” during which more aftershocks are likely to be recorded.
Quake toll may cross 40,000
Over 30,000 victims in AJK, 9,000 in NWFP; thousands await rescue under debris; 25 deaths confirmed in Margalla Towers collapse
The death toll following Saturday’s massive earthquake rose to 35,000 on Sunday, with 30,000 victims in Azad Kashmir alone.
The death toll in the NWFP reached 9,000, including 7,000 deaths in Hazara. At the Margalla Towers, Islamabad, 25 deaths have been confirmed. Thousands of people trapped under the debris of collapsed buildings in AJK and NWFP districts still await rescue.
They’ve run out of shrouds
The rubble of the Government Girls Secondary School in the Chamm locality, Garhi Habibullah, is yet to be photographed by a leading political heavyweight or the district government/administration or even the much-publicised military’s relief teams.
No one came to offer condolences, make (false) promises of early rescue operations for their trapped loved ones except for the military helicopter hovering over many hundred feet high in the sky. The disaster-hit population knows this and only seeks help from Allah.
More aftershocks in Islamabad
The federal capital here and the twin city Rawalpindi suffered severe shocks of earthquake once more today.
Metrological Department chief, Dr. Qamr uz Zaman Chaudhry told that the intensity of this earthquake was still being examined, however, it was around 6 on Richter scale, according to an estimate.
Earlier, one more severe tremor that shook and shivered the city at exactly 12.9 P.M. today was measured 5.5 on Richter scale.
Dr. Qamr uz Zaman revealed that since yesterday morning’s disastrous earthquake till now altogether 144 tremors were recorded, while today alone it tormented 44 times from 5.00 A. M to 1.45 P.M noon and most of them were on Richter scale measured 4.
Quake result of sub-continent moving northward: USGS
The devastating earthquake which struck Pakistan and Kashmir was a direct result of the Indian sub-continent’s shift towards the north and its collision with the Eurasian continent, the US Geological survey today said.
“Earthquakes and active faults in northern Pakistan and adjacent parts of India and Afghanistan were the direct result of the Indian subcontinent moving northward at a rate of about 40 mm per year and colliding with the Eurasian continent,” USGS said in its report on yesterday’s quake which killed thousands of people in Pakistan.
This collision is causing upliftment that produces the highest mountain peaks in the world, including the Himalayan, Karakoram, Pamir and Hindu Kush Ranges.