Rescuers give up hope of finding quake survivors

RESCUE workers yesterday abandoned the search for any survivors trapped in the rubble of last week’s earthquake, and a top UN official warned that reconstruction of the devastated region will cost billions of dollars and take up to a decade.

Weather forecasters warned that heavy rains expected in the quake zone this weekend could disrupt efforts to provide food and shelter to an estimated two million people ahead of the harsh Himalayan winter.

With Pakistan’s death toll from the October 8 earthquake estimated at more than 35,000, officials said there was virtually no hope of finding more people alive beneath the tens of thousands of buildings that collapsed.

UN undersecretary-general and emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland, said the search-and-rescue phase was now over. “It’s a cruel reality. But after a week, very few people survive. If we don’t work together, we will become a disaster within a disaster,” he said. “It will take billions of dollars to rebuild this will take five to 10 years.”

In Islamabad, police launched a criminal investigation into the collapse of a 10-storey luxury residence that was the capital’s only structure to fall in the magnitude-7.6 quake, killing at least 40 residents.

“We will arrest all those who didn’t perform their duty well,” city police chief Sikandar Hayat said. “They might be the builders, contractors or supervisors.”

Most of Pakistan’s deaths were in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir, where snow has started to fall. India has reported over 1,350 deaths in the portion of Kashmir it controls.

Mohammed Hanif, a senior meteorologist in Islamabad, said clouds and rain were due in Kashmir and other areas over the next day. Many exhausted relief workers dealt with the added burden of fasting in the daytime hours for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The country’s relief commissioner, Major General Farooq Ahmad Khan, said Pakistan expected to get two million blankets and 100,000 large tents before the onset of winter. He said 200,000 houses had been destroyed.

UNICEF said the international relief effort must focus on helping children at risk of death from cold, malnutrition and disease.

The UN agency said it was sending high protein biscuits, boots and jumpers for children, blankets, water containers, plastic tarpaulins, tents, medical supplies and blankets.

Pakistan’s information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said helicopters from other countries had saved 6,000 injured by ferrying them to hospitals.

Millions of Muslims thronged mosques across Pakistan yesterday, the Muslim sabbath, to pray for those who died. Some clerics said the quake was a sign God was unhappy with his people. “God, forgive us,” said the cleric, Mulana Sazluddin Chishdi.

“Help all those who are helping others and give the nation courage to bear this loss and take part in the reconstruction of this city.”