Sunday, February 28, 2010
Kashmir Earthquake in 2005
2005 Kashmir Earthquake
Massive earthquake that hits Pakistan and the Kashmir region on October 08,2005 at around 08:50hrs local time, killed more than 79,000.
The mammoth earthquake with a magnitude 7.9 on the Ritcher scale is one of the deadliest quakes in modern times. The earthquake resulted in about eighty thousand casualties, two hundred thousand injured, and more than 4 million people left homeless.
In regions approximately 25km from the epicenter nearly 25% of the buildings collapsed and 50% of the buildings were severly damaged. The main reasons for it were primarily due to poor building structures and materials used.The high casualties were caused by the fact that most students were at school when the earthquake struck. Many were buried under collapsed school buildings. Many people were also trapped in their homes and, because it was the month of Ramadan, most people were taking a nap after their pre-dawn meal and did not have time to escape during the earthquake. Many towns and villages were completely wiped out in Northern Pakistan.
Unfortunately International aids did not arrive on time. "Several thousands of remote villages were in need of medical attention, food, clean water and shelter and more than 120,000 survivors had yet to be reached." said a UN spokesperson. According to Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz "..bad weather, mountainous terrain, landslides and blocked roads are making it difficult for relief workers to reach each house and the winter snows are imminent". The situations were dire, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said the financial cost of the quake will be more than US$5bn but less than 30% of the US$312m sought by UN aid agencies were delivered. Many other rich nations have so far donated nothing. This was clearly sad as the gap between an emergency appeal being announced and funds actually being received could mean the difference between life and death for many thousands of survivors.
While the earthquake could not be prevented, authorities in earthquake prone zone and countries should work closely with earthquake monitoring centers worldwide and provide pre-alerts and warnings to it's nation. There should also be strict rules to govern the use of building materials and structural designs especially for areas prone to earthquake. Lastly, United Nations should pay a key role both in fund raising and providing aids in earthquake disasters. In the case of the 2005 Kashmir earthquake, aids were clearly inadequate and untimely.
-Valerie Lim Xuan
References
A Summary Report on Muzaffarabad Earthquake, Pakistan by Dr. A. Naeem, Dr. Qaisar Ali, Muhammad Javed, Zakir Hussain, Amjad Naseer, Syed Muhammed Ali, Irshad Ahmed and Muhammad Ashraf, Earthquake Engineering Center at the Department of Civil Engineering, University of NWFP
Wikipedia:2005 Kashmir Earthquake -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_kashmir_earthquake#The_earthquake
BBC NEWS - Quake is 'UN's worst nightmare'-Thursday, 20 October 2005, 12:44 GMT 13:44 UK
BBC NEWS - Rich world 'failing' on quake aid -
Wednesday, 26 October 2005, 09:21 GMT 10:21 UK
Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI):A summary report on Muzaffarabad earthquake - 07 Nov 2005
REUTERS- Pak in panic as quake rocks Kashmir - Wednesday, October 2005
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
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