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Aftershock jolts Pakistan as aid flows in
CTV.ca News Staff

There was more panic on Thursday for the hungry, homeless survivors of last weekend's deadly earthquake when an aftershock jolted parts of Pakistan.

The 5.6-magnitude aftershock was centred 137 kilometres north of Islamabad, near the epicentre of Saturday's 7.6-magnitude quake that demolished towns mostly in the Himalayan region of Kashmir.

The aftershock forced British, German and Turkish rescuers to suspend efforts to save a trapped 22-year-old woman from the rubble in Muzaffarabad. Rescuers said she died overnight.

Since the main quake, there have been dozens of aftershocks in the region, including a 6.2-magnitude temblor.

"They will go on for months, possibly years," Don Blakeman, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center, told the Associated Press.

The UN's emergency relief chief, Jan Egeland, flew by helicopter to Muzaffarabad to assess relief efforts. He said he fears "we are losing the race against the clock in the small villages" cut off by blocked roads.

Half of the buildings in the town were flattened and hope of finding survivors has dwindled. Britain's Department for International Development was pulling out its team of 60 search and rescue workers, said Rob Holden, the team leader for UN disaster assessment and coordination.

"No one is giving up but it is the acceptance that the actual real chances of finding someone alive are almost nil, so we don't need all the specialist international teams," Holden said. There are still 18 international teams in the region.

Two plane-loads of Canadian aid arrived in Pakistan yesterday and today, and an advance team of Canadian soldiers is on the ground in Islamabad, laying the groundwork should Canada decide to send the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to the region.

"What we'll be looking for is where we feel that we can be of the most benefit," Col. Steve Noonan, head of the military team, told CTV's Canada AM.

"I was sent in because I'm also the commander of Task Force Afghanistan, and we have some military resources, as you know, located there and could provide quick response, followed up by ... soldiers, medical technicians and engineers from Canada."

The quake's death toll was believed to be more than 35,000, and tens of thousands have been injured.

The United Nations estimates some 4 million people have been affected, including 2 million who lost homes. They warned that measles and other diseases could break out.

Plane carries disaster relief team's gear to Pakistan
Last Updated Sat, 15 Oct 2005 18:47:21 EDT
CBC News
A giant transport plane packed with equipment and supplies for Canada's disaster relief team has departed for Pakistan, while the bulk of the troops are getting ready to leave Sunday.


INDEPTH: Canada's disaster-response team

The Ukrainian Antonov AN-225 plane left Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Eastern Ontario at 10 a.m. EDT on Saturday, carrying 75 tonnes of cargo.

The chartered plane was flying to Islamabad, where it will be met by the two dozen members of the Disaster Assistance Response Team who have been trying to determine how it can best help in the aftermath of last week's massive earthquake.


RELATED STORY: Quake death toll nears 40,000

The bulk of the team – about 200 troops – are scheduled to depart for Pakistan on Sunday evening.

The six-engine Antonov, which is the biggest plane in the world, will need to make as many as four more flights to ferry all of DART's supplies to Islamabad.

Prime Minister Paul Martin confirmed Friday that DART was being deployed, hours after Pakistani army officials said they were abandoning their search for survivors of the 7.6-magnitude quake.

The prime minister said the advance team would go to Pakistan-controlled parts of the state of Kashmir, where the earthquake did the most damage, to help in the next stage of recovery.

After the advance team prepares the way, the rest of the DART personnel will follow early next week, Martin said.

Part of the military team's job will be to establish clean drinking water supplies and help set up makeshift villages for survivors as winter approaches.

The 200 members of DART were last deployed after the Dec. 26 tsunami that swept over the shores of nations around the Indian Ocean.

Last Saturday's disaster killed at least 25,000 people in Pakistan and 1,400 in India.

Pakistani authorities estimated that two million people lost their homes.

Tens of thousands of people were injured and many people remain without medical care, food or shelter.



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Sat. Oct. 22 2005 2:37 PM ET
One member of Canada's Disaster Assistance Relief Team examines one victim's injury.

DART team members Sgt. Will Smith, from St. Stephen, N.B., Wrt. Officer Bill Wyman, from Ottawa, and 2nd Lt. Zachary Zewwari, from Mississauga, look over a map of the disaster area during an operations briefing in Islamabad, Pakistan. (CP / Ryan Remiorz)

Sgt. Alain Beauvais, from Quebec City, with Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, gives a young girl a tetanus shot at a clinic run by Pakistani doctors from America in Gari Dupata, Pakistan Oct. 21, 2005. (CP PHOTO/Ryan Remiorz)

DART clinic opens to stream of quake patients
CTV.ca News Staff

The Canadian Disaster Assistance Response Team opened its field hospital near the epicenter of the south Asian earthquake on Saturday, two weeks to the hour after the disaster struck the region on Oct. 8.

A steady stream of patients with broken limbs, open head wounds and large gashes, most of them women and children, were waiting to be treated by the DART medics.

Seven-year-old Assad walked five kilometres with his grandfather, Babu Khan, to reach the clinic in Garidupata, Pakistan.

"The quake destroyed his school," explained Khan to CTV news. "His brother died, but he escaped."

The DART's clinic director, Dr. Sean Blundell, said he was relieved to finally be able to start helping these people who have received little or no treatment since the massive 7.6-magnitude quake.

"The med techs are happy, I'm happy, the medical nurses and officers are happy. It finally feels good to finally be able to get out there and do things," Blundell told CTV News.

Five people were admitted to the DART's small 20-bed overnight unit for observation.

The lineups continued to grow as the hours passed, although most of the injuries were relatively minor. The most serious cases have been airlifted to a hospital in Islamabad. But many of the seriously injured are feared to be trapped in the remote mountain villages.

CTV's Matt McClure made a five-kilometre hike with a team of medics to Kaladian, one of the cut-off communities.

"When we finally do reach the summit, it's a scene of destruction," McClure said. "Not one home is still standing."

Inside makeshift shelters, McClure and the team found people nursing infected wounds. The worst case was 14-year-old Sadakat. He was suffering from a fractured leg that wasn't properly set. His mother and sister were too weak to carry him towards help.

While critics have complained that the DART deployment was more a public relations exercise than a humanitarian effort, many lined up outside the unit's Garidupata clinic disagreed.

"There is no doctor here, no beds, no facilities," Robina Ateeq, the mother of a six-year-old burn victim who fell into a fire during the quake, told the Canadian Press.

"We're very happy the Canadians have set up a very good medical centre. There are many injured people who today are coming down from the hills."

Canadian medics, even those with recent disaster experience, said it's the first time they've seen so many broken bones and other trauma.

"We've never experienced this before with the DART, not to this level," Warrant Officer Christine Styles of Whitby, Ont. told the Canadian Press.

"It's unbelievable," said medical technician Nathalie Leclerc. "I expected this, but I was hoping it wouldn't be like this. It's hard to see such misery."

this was out 10/31/05 -- This text is from a county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota state after the recent snow storm.
WEATHER BULLETIN
Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from a Historic event — may I even say a “Weather Event” of “Biblical Proportions” — with a historic blizzard of up to 24″ inches of snow and winds to 50 MPH that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10’s of thousands.
FYI:
George Bush did not come….
FEMA staged nothing….
No one howled for the government…
No one even uttered an expletive on TV…
Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards…..
No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House….
No one looted….
Phil Cantori of the Weather Channel did not come….
And Geraldo Rivera did not move in.

Nope, we just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Aladdin lamps, and put on an extra layer of clothes because up here it is ‘work or die’. We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for ’sittin at home’ checks.

Even though a Category “5″ blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early…we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

“In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% most of the world’s social problems evaporate.”

Tell him to take a ride to Waveland Mississippi and report back to us.

Somewhat "Apples and Oranges", if you ask me......