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| A man stands amid the rubble of a collapsed house after an earthquake in Ziarat. Pakistani rescuers pulled 160 bodies from the rubble of hundreds of mud-walled homes in the southwestern province of Baluchistan on Wednesday after a powerful earthquake struck, government officials said. (Reuters/Rizwan Saeed, courtesy www.alertnet.org) |
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| QUETTA, Pakistan (October 29, 2008) - CARE's emergency team is on the ground in the devastated region of Baluchistan province, near the border of Afghanistan, where a 6.4 magnitude earthquake destroyed houses and killed a reported 500-600 people. The death toll from the quake is expected to rise throughout the day as rescuers recover more bodies from the rubble.
"If the 2005 quake is anything to go by, we could see the death roll rise sharply as more information comes in from the remote areas," said Hasan Mazumdar, CARE's country director in Pakistan. "We have reports that two villages in Ziarat, near Quetta, lost 100 people each, and all houses were destroyed. And that's just two villages." Click here to read Hasan Mazumdar's firsthand account of his visit to the area. He writes, "This is the saddest thing I've seen in my life."
Immediate needs are food, shelter, emergency medical assistance to reach survivors in rural areas, and safe drinking water. Survivors spent the night exposed to sub-zero temperatures, huddled together under blankets for warmth. CARE, which responded to the 2005 quake that killed more than 73,000 people, is shipping 500 winterized family tents plus hygiene kits and kitchen supplies to the affected area near the provincial capital of Quetta. As CARE and government and aid agencies work to determine the full extent of the damage, CARE is preparing to ship additional shelter and emergency supplies and dispatch a medical team to treat injured survivors. "Shelter is the most critical need now. Winter has already started here...If we don't get shelter for the survivors, they will be sleeping under the open sky. This is a vast, poor area – it's not like the survivors can easily evacuate to a safe place," said Mazumdar. Most of the damaged shelters are mud huts, that crumpled under the force of the earthquake. Landlines are cut off, and many roads are inaccessible to the more remote areas. Click here for a map of the affected areas.
Media Coverage CARE in the News - The Guardian: Hundreds Feared Dead in Pakistan Earthquake
CARE in the News - Financial Times: At Least 170 Dead in Earthquake
CNN: More Than 200 Killed in Pakistan Quake
The Washington Post: Pakistan Begins Rescue Efforts as Quake Death Toll Tops 170
The New York Times: Quake in Pakistan Kills at Least 215
ReliefWeb: 20,000 Displaced by Pakistan Earthquake, WHO Warns of Health Risks
About CARE: CARE has been working in Pakistan since 2005.CARE works in some of the most remote and logistically challenging areas of Pakistan, implementing programs in health, education, water and sanitation, psychosocial, livelihoods and emergency response.
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Geneva: Melanie Brooks, CARE, brooks@careinternational.org, +41.79.590.3047
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