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A month after quake, misery still ahead
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-09 00:47
A month after last year's tsunami, aid groups were
hailing the most successful funding drive in history, with enough money to start
rebuilding across Asia. A month after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, the
city was nearly pumped dry and the mayor spoke optimistically of the future.
Pakistani Kashmiri earthquake survivor enjoys
sunbathe to warm up himself, at a camp, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2005 in
Muzaffarabad, Pakistan. The estimated death toll in South Asia's huge
earthquake jumped Tuesday to 86,000 after a new count of the dead in
Pakistan, while U.N. workers raced the Himalayan winter to bring shelter
to 350,000 of the neediest survivors one month after the disaster.
[AP] |
But one month after South Asia's monster Oct. 8 earthquake flattened entire
communities and killed more than 87,300 people in the Himalayan mountains, there
is barely enough money to keep relief helicopters flying, and little talk yet of
rebuilding.
Survival is still all that matters for more than 3 million people who lost
homes in the quake — and with an icy winter bearing down, survival is anything
but assured.
"What is particularly difficult in Kashmir is that people (will) freeze to
death if they don't get assistance in weeks," U.N. humanitarian chief Jan
Egeland said overnight in New York. "It's even more urgent than it was in these
other hurricanes or tsunamis."
Pakistan's government says about 334,000 tents have been delivered to quake
survivors, just over half of the 600,000 that U.N. officials say are needed. The
U.N. has issued an appeal for cooking stoves to help people stay warm. Of
particular concern are some 200,000 villagers living above the snow line, some
of whom have yet to receive any aid whatsoever.
Forecasters predict temperatures will dip to minus-13
degrees Fahrenheit in some stricken areas, with 17 feet of snow expected for the
season.
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