Survivors fight over quake relief supplies

Desperate earthquake survivors fought over relief supplies as the first food convoys reached the devastated city of Muzaffarabad in Pakistan, but the help was far from enough and heavy rains held up some helicopter flights to badly hit areas.

An army official said the death toll had climbed to more than 35,000 people.

Many bodies were still buried beneath the rubble, and the United Nations warned of the threat of measles, cholera and diarrhoea outbreaks among the millions of survivors. The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday flattened whole communities, mostly in the Himalayan region of Kashmir, and aid has not reached many areas.

“The recovery efforts have been slowed by bad weather and large parts of the region are still inaccessible because landslides have destroyed the road network,” the United Nations said in a statement released yesterday in Islamabad.

The Pakistani government’s official death toll was about 23,000 people, but a senior army official involved in the rescue operations said that “according to our assessment, the death toll is between 35,000 to 40,000 people.”

India said more than 1,400 people died in the part of Kashmir that it controls. India planned to send a planeload of food, tents and medicine to Pakistan, its long-time rival. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, but have embarked on a peace process.

One of the places hardest hit by the quake was Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, where most homes and all government buildings were destroyed. There is no power or water supply, and many of the city’s 600,000 people have no shelter as winter approaches. The nights are already cold.

International aid workers, including Turkish doctors, medics from the group Doctors without Borders and assessment teams from other agencies, were working in the city. But in Muzaffarabad, the effort did not appear to be nearly enough to meet the overwhelming needs.

Bob McKerrow, co-ordinator of relief efforts for the International Federation of the Red Cross, said in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad late yesterday that 17 trucks had left for affected areas with supplies, including blood for hospitals. He said heavy rains could hamper the relief effort.

Police looked on helplessly as more than 200 people raided a stock of food arranged by relief workers at a soccer field near Muzaffarabad’s centre – one of six designated aid distribution points.

One man made off with a big sack of sugar, another left on a motorised rickshaw with a big crate of drinking water.

“I can’t wait for the food to be distributed properly,” said Ali Khan, a construction worker who has barely eaten for days. “I need it desperately and I’ll take it.”

The quake damaged sanitation systems in the region, destroyed hospitals and left many victims with no access to clean drinking water, making them more vulnerable to disease.

“Measles could potentially become a serious problem,” said Fadela Chaib, spokeswoman for the UN’s World Health Organisation in Geneva. “We fear that if people huddle closely together in temporary shelters and crowded conditions, more measles cases could occur.”

Measles – potentially deadly for children – are already endemic in the region and only 60% of the children are protected. At least 90% coverage is needed to prevent an epidemic, WHO said. The agency will soon start gathering essential vaccines for a mass immunisation program.