Break in Storms Allow Relief Works to Continue to Desperate Pakistan Quake Victims

A break in heavy rains in Pakistan on Monday morning has allowed helicopter relief teams to resume their works across the country’s quake regions. However, the excessive rains have meant landslide dangers increasing, and a series of fresh landslides are now hampering efforts to reach isolated communities by road.

|PIC1|Officials working in the area are quoting the death toll to have increased to more than 54,000.

Fears have increased for millions of survivors without health care and shelter in the remote mountains of Kashmir. In response to the increased risks, eight international medical teams have been dispatched from Muzaffarabad.

It is thought that at least one-fifth of the populated areas within the quake-affected regions have still not been reached by any sort of aid whatsoever. As the situation gets more desperate the relief teams are being stretched to full capacity to save as many as possible.

Sebastian Nouak of the International Committee of the Red Cross said, “There are serious patients with infected wounds and gangrene.”

He continued saying that about 200 people in the town of Chekar, about 40 miles east of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's part of the divided Himalayan region, had not received medical assistance since the 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck on Oct. 8. Helicopters are unable to land as desparate villagers rushed into the landing area as they came into land.

|PIC2|On Saturday six soldiers were killed when their MI-17 helicopter crashed in bad weather in the town of Bagh.

On the Indian side of Kashmir, Monday saw terrible weather draw in once more as torrential rains and snow created rivers of mud out of the usual roads. This resulted in relief trucks loaded with relief supplies being stranded as they headed for the worst affected areas of Uri and Tangdhar.

The UN are has reported its belief that up to 2 million people have been left homeless by the quake, and these people simply will not survive unless shelter and aid can reach them before the winter draws in.

Pakistani military have said that it may take several weeks to clear landslides blocking routes to several regions.

Major General Farooq Ahmed Khan, Pakistan’s Relief Commissioner, reported that 29,000 tents and 118,000 blankets had been distributed in the quake zone. However, he had earlier stated that 100,000 tents were needed.

|TOP|B.B. Vyas, divisional commissioner of Jammu-Kashmir, said air dropping of supplies to outlying areas was halted because of the bad weather. The road to Tangdhar, buried under 10 inches of snow, was closed, cutting off the town.

In response Christian groups around the world have been gathering tents, blankets, food, and water from supporters to provide such immediate aid supplies. The Evangelical Fellowship of Asia, whose members are still recovering from the last winter’s devastating tsunami, released an “immediate appeal” for “tents beddings and blankets.”

“There is an immediate need to get these organised, especially with the onset of winter within the next few weeks,” the group wrote in a press statement. “EFA is dispatching a container load of blankets, bedding, sleeping bags etc from Sri Lanka to Pakistan with immediate effect.”