Muzaffarabad is a ghost town from dark ages
With entire suburban population heading to the town in hope of relief, more danger of disease is at hand with some 20,000 bodies decaying underneath the rubble and over countless injured living in the worst unhygienic conditions.
As if this was not enough, the migrant inhabitants and the worried relatives are rushing back after the opening of the roads to the place once called
The relief workers who have yet to start a massive relief operation should go back to their disaster assessment manuals. Remember, the city’s only health facility, the 400-beded Combined Military Hospital was among the first victim of the earthquake leaving some 200 dead. No power supply, dead telephone lines, no diesel to run vehicle!
Giving a sense of the overall death toll, CMH Commandant Colonel Dr Iqbal Hanif said, “We received 150 dead in the first one hour.” Since the hospital was not functioning so the people did not bring their dead to the hospital, still another 300 bodies were lying in the devastated its lawns. With the patients, the hospital lost some 25 medical staff members from the army, three civilian lady doctors and a same number of nurses.
Iqbal said, “That morning 256 bed were occupied and the medical staff was carrying out their first round to the wards.” He says the growling sound followed a massive quake tearing down the entire building into shreds except for the recently built Major Ejaz Gulba Shaheed block. The section was also evacuated soon after tremors further widened the initial fatal cracks.
Iqbal said despite a quick rescue effort, 200 persons died on the spot. He explained that 70 persons are still buried under the rubble in the Family Ward while 15 bodies are nearby block in the same vicinity. The manual effort could only succeed in taking out 20 bodies.
The military in the town does not have sufficient equipment as far as the excavation part is concerned. “So far whatever evacuation has been done was through manual labour,” said Col Iqbal Hanif. The city needs more excavators, experts and sniffer-trained dogs.
Lone 11-member Turkish team has descended and hectically involved to find any alive souls in the rubble. But they are the only one so far. The Red Cross and PRCS are making their way in after the roads have opened for normal traffic. There are no quick fix solutions in the ghost town.
Three days after the D-day, the injured and the dead both are in the open in two medical camps and a temporary morgue. One camp has been set up in the Muzaffarabad Stadium while the other is on the university ground. Most of the bodies have been taken out from the CMH and brought from other buildings are put on the stairs of university ground for identification.
The medical staff can do nothing more than minor surgery, bandage and administering anti-biotic injections. The patients are scattered all over the ground with some lying on the cots brought from home, a few lucky ones on hospital beds, yet others on pull carts and many simply on the ground.
A few military trucks were trying to distribute blankets, bed-sheets, rice and sugar among the frantic crowds fighting for their last breathe. Disorganized efforts will be resulting in nothing but chaos until a widespread relief operation is carried out with larger presence of the government machinery, aid agencies backed by many dozen squadrons of helicopters.
Till the afternoon, the administrator of the university ground “medical camp” said some 55 injured persons could be evacuated to Islamabad for proper medical treatment. The MI 17s and a variety of helicopter did land on the university ground but with little space for the injured as either they carried soldiers’ coffin from Kel or elsewhere close to LoC or patients from those locations.
The military officers on duty hope more equipment would arrive by Tuesday as “it is already working and once it is free from other sectors it will come here”. Taking the Madina Market as an example, all the worst hit areas doomed due to unplanned construction, dangerously close to each other. The famous Neelum Hotel is a mere pack of rubble while other structures such the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, Supreme Court, the parliament all need to face the demolition squad. Keeping the tragedy aside for a while, the setting is ripe for a new look metropolis but with a sensible governance structure.
Source: The News
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October 18th, 2005 at 2:29 am
I REQUEST GOVERNMENT OF PAKISTAN AND GOVERMENT OF USA, PLEASE CHECK OR INVESTIGATE EITHER THIS EARTHQUAKE IS NATURALLY OR DUE TO USE OF THERMOBARIC SHOCK BOMB, IN AFGANISTAN.
January 21st, 2006 at 5:24 pm
Where can I find information on USA testing or dropping thi ‘Thermobaric Shock Bomb’? There is no news on this.