Afghan earthquake kills at least 920; toll expected to rise

[hussain0216]

Isn't this the area where TTP and supporters live?

 

[sur]

It's all about geography, infrastructure and human beings continuing to build habitats in seismic hazard zones.
. . .

Some years ago, Bahria Town started an initiative of building light weight, insulated houses with polymer materials. Kind of like in West they have studs and drywalls.

I was excited about that initiative, but majority people looked at them with disgust. That such a weak house. No cement no bricks.

That was a flop show and probably stopped.

I think that kind of construction must be at least encouraged if not made mandatory in areas that are high risk for earth quakes


Lighter stud based structure will be:

• Less likely to collapse.
• Less likely to cause serious injury even if collapses because it will be a slower collapse, much absorbed by w crumple zones in stud mesh. Just like modern cars are made w crumple zones.
• Provide better insulation from elements.
• Cheaper too if it becomes common.
• And more flexible to make changes to.

 

[RescueRanger]

Some years ago, Bahria Town started an initiative of building light weight, insulated, houses with polymer materials. Kind of like in West they have studs and drywalls.

I was excited about that initiative, but majority people looked at them with disgust. That such a weak house. No cement no bricks.

That was a flop show and probably stopped.

I think that kind of construction must be at least encouraged if not made mandatory in areas that are high risk for earth quakes


Lighter stud based structure will be:

• Less likely to collapse.
• Less likely to cause serious injury even if collapses because it will be a slower collapse, much absorbed by w crumple zones in stud mesh. Just like modern cars are made w crumple zones.
• Provide better insulation from elements.
• Cheaper too if it becomes common.
• And more flexible to make changes to.

Earthquake resistant construction has been adopted in northern areas after 2005.

Article 25 - Humanitarian Architecture - Rebuilding houses after Pakistan earthquake

We helped the local communities with the design of prototypes and construction workshops so they could rebuild their villages.

www.article-25.org

 

[Luosifen]

 

[ghazi52]

,.,.,,.

Afghan earthquake: At least 1,000 people killed and 1,500 injured​

By Leo Sands & Malu Cursino
BBC News

A powerful earthquake has killed at least 1,000 people and injured 1,500 in eastern Afghanistan, an official of the ruling Taliban told the BBC.

The Taliban appealed for international help for the rescue effort as pictures showed landslides and ruined mud-built homes in the province of Paktika.

The quake struck shortly after 01:30 (21:00 GMT Tuesday) as people slept.
Hundreds of houses were destroyed by the magnitude 6.1 event, which occurred at a depth of 51km (32 miles).

It is the deadliest earthquake to strike Afghanistan in two decades and a major challenge for the Taliban, the Islamist movement which regained power last year after the Western-backed government collapsed.

The earthquake struck about 44km from the city of Khost and tremors were felt as far away as Pakistan and India. Witnesses reported feeling the quake in both Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, and Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.

Decades of conflict have made it difficult for the impoverished country to improve its protections against earthquakes and other natural disasters - despite efforts by aid agencies to reinforce some buildings over the years.

Afghanistan is prone to quakes, as it's located in a tectonically active region, over a number of fault lines including the Chaman fault, the Hari Rud fault, the Central Badakhshan fault and the Darvaz fault.

Over the past decade more than 7,000 people have been killed in earthquakes in the country, the UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports. There are an average of 560 deaths a year from earthquakes.

Most recently, back-to-back earthquakes in the country's west in January killed more than 20 people and destroyed hundreds of houses.

 

[Zhukov]

So sad. May Allah give patience to the loved ones of the deceased.
The casualty number is very high.

 

[Imran Khan]

so sad poor people will now suffer more

 

[Maula Jatt]

God bless the people of Afghanistan in this time of hardship
can we do something to help as individuals? any place to donate?

 

[Shakuni Mama]

God bless the people of Afghanistan in this time of hardship
can we do something to help as individuals? any place to donate?

Kya karoge yaar ? Will it reach to needed ? BC Payjame upar hone chaiye, daadi rakhni jaruri hai, ladies cannot go out without a man. These are their priorities. Upar 2-3 post pehle pic dekho hospital k andar gun le kar ghoom rahe hai. Afghanis are living of their own on mercy of God.

 

[fallstuff]

Sad , considering some of these folks only had a roof over their head and not much more.

 

[ghazi52]

,.,.

'What do we do when another disaster hits?' Afghans face crises on all fronts after quake kills 1,000​

By Tara John, Akanksha Sharma, Jo Shelley and Ehsan Popalzai,
CNN
June 24, 2022

(CNN)Aid groups scrambled on Thursday to reach victims of a powerful earthquake that rocked eastern Afghanistan, killing more than 1,000 people in an area blighted by poor infrastructure, as the country faces dire economic and hunger crises.

The slow response, exacerbated by international sanctions and decades of mismanagement, concerns people working in the humanitarian space, like Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer in Transitional Justice at the American University of Afghanistan. "This is a very patchwork, band-aid solution for a problem that we need to start thinking (about) mid to long term... what do we do when (another disaster) hits?" he told CNN by phone.

The magnitude 5.9 quake struck during the early hours of Wednesday near the city of Khost by the Pakistan border and the death toll is expected to rise as many of the homes in the area were flimsily made out of wood, mud and other materials vulnerable to damage.

Humanitarian agencies are converging on the area, but its remote location has complicated rescue efforts.

The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has successfully dispatched humanitarian aid and assistance to families in Paktika and Khost provinces to cover the needs of about 4,000 people, a spokesperson for UN Secretary General António Guterres said during a Thursday press briefing.
Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the "priority needs include emergency shelter and non-food items, food assistance, health and water and sanitation, as well as hygiene support."

He added that the World Food Program (WFP) has confirmed stocks of food will be able to serve at least 14,000 in the hardest-hit Paktika province.

"At least 18 trucks are making their way to the earthquake-affected areas carrying emergency supplies, including high-energy biscuits and mobile storage units," a WFP statement released Thursday said.

UNICEF Afghanistan tweeted that they were able to distribute "hygiene kits, winter kits, emergency family kitchen kits, tents, blankets, warm clothes and tarpaulin" to affected individuals in Paktika and Khost.

Men stand around the bodies of people killed in an earthquake in Gayan village, in Paktika province, Afghanistan, on June 23.

The quake coincided with heavy monsoon rain and wind between June 20 and 22, which has hampered search efforts and helicopter travel.
As medics and emergency staff from around the country attempt to access the site, help is expected to be limited as a number of organizations pulled out of the aid-dependent country when the Taliban took power in August last year.

Those that remain are stretched thin. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it had mobilized "all of the resources" from around the country, with teams on the ground providing medicine and emergency support. But, as one WHO official put it, "the resources are overstretched here, not just for this region."

'Very bleak'​

The international community's hesitancy to deal with the Taliban and the group's "very messy bureaucracy where it becomes difficult to gain information from one source" has led to a communication gap in the rescue efforts, Baheer -- who is also the founder of aid group Save Afghans from Hunger -- said.

"At the core of everything is how the politics has translated into this gap of communication, not just between countries and the Taliban, but international aid organizations and the Taliban as well," he added.

Baheer gives an example of how he has been acting as a conduit of information with the WFP and other aid organizations, informing them that Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense were offering to airlift aid from humanitarian organizations to badly hit areas.

In the meantime, some people spent the night sleeping in makeshift outdoor shelters, as rescuers scoured for survivors by flashlight. The United Nations says 2,000 homes are thought to have been destroyed. Pictures from the badly hit Paktika province, where most of the deaths have been reported, show homes reduced to dust and rubble.

Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP deputy country director in Afghanistan, described the situation on the ground as "very bleak," where some the villages in heavily affected districts "are completely decimated or 70% are collapsed," she said.

Members of a Taliban rescue team return from affected villages following an earthquake.
"There will be months and potentially years of building back," she said. "The needs are so much more massive than just food... It could be shelter for example, to be able to facilitate the movement of that food as well as the customs clearance, logistics would be helpful."
Officials say aid is reaching the affected areas.

The government has so far distributed food, tents, clothing, and other supplies to the quake-hit provinces, according to Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense's official Twitter account. Medical and relief teams deployed by the Afghan government are already present in the quake-hit areas, and attempting to transport the wounded to medical facilities and health centers by land and air, it added.

'Carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people'​

Although the economic crisis in Afghanistan has loomed for years, the result of conflict and drought, it plunged to new depths after the Taliban takeover, which prompted the United States and its allies to freeze about $7 billion of the country's foreign reserves and cut off international funding.

The US no longer has a presence in Afghanistan following the hasty withdrawal of its troops and collapse of the previous US-backed Afghan government. Like nearly all other nations, it does not have official relations with the Taliban government.

Sanctions have crippled the Afghan economy and sent many of its 20 million people into a severe hunger crisis. Millions of Afghans are out of work, government employees haven't been paid, and the price of food has soared.

Humanitarian aid is excluded from sanctions, but there are impediments, according to draft remarks by Martin Griffiths, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), ahead of a UN Security Council in the situation in Afghanistan.

This includes a major need in funding, Taliban authorities "seeking to play a role in the selection of beneficiaries and channeling assistance to people on their own priority lists," and the "formal banking system continues to block transfers," he writes.

This means "around 80% of organizations (who responded to OCHA's monitoring survey) are facing delays in transferring funds, with two thirds reporting that their international banks continue to deny transfers. Over 60% of organizations cite lack of available cash in-country as a programmatic impediment."

A child stands beside a house damaged by an earthquake in Bernal district, Paktika province, on June 23.

Baheer says sanctions "are hurting us so much" that Afghans are struggling to send money to families affected by the earthquake.

"The fact that we barely have a banking system, the fact that we haven't had new currency printed or brought into the country in the past nine to 10 months, our assets are frozen... these sanctions don't work," he said.

He added: "The only sanctions that make moral sense is targeted sanctions on specific individuals rather than carpet sanctioning a whole country and a whole people."

While "sanctions have affected a lot of the country, there's an exemption for humanitarian aid so we're getting it in to support those most in need," Mort, from UNICEF, told CNN.

The Taliban "isn't preventing us from distributing anything like that, on the contrary they are enabling us," she added.

Experts and officials say the most pressing immediate needs include medical care and transportation for the injured, shelter and supplies for the displaced, food and water, and clothing.

An Afghan man looks for his belongings amid the ruins of a house damaged by an earthquake.

The UN has distributed medical supplies and sent mobile health teams to Afghanistan -- but warned that it does not have search and rescue capabilities.

Baheer told CNN on Wednesday that the Taliban were only able to send out six rescue helicopters "because when the United States was leaving it disabled most of the aircraft whether it belonged to Afghanistan forces or to them."

Pakistan has offered to help, opening border crossings in its northern province of Khyber Pakhtunkwa and allowing injured Afghans to come into the country visa-free for treatment, according Mohammad Ali Saif, a regional government spokesperson.

"400 injured Afghans have moved into Pakistan this morning for treatment and a stream of people is continuing, these numbers are expected to rise by the end of day, Saif told CNN.
Pakistan has kept a tight limit on Afghans entering the country via the land border crossing since the Taliban took power.

CNN's Richard Roth, Robert Shackleford, Yong Xiong, Jessie Yeung, Sophia Saifi, Mohammed Shafi Kakar and Aliza Kassim contributed to this report.

 

[N.Siddiqui]

Light wooden structures will not fall in eartquake due to higher tensile strength of wood, the mud, stone and brick structures as seen in the pictures above are dangerous in earthquake prone areas.

Or if steel tresses, girders, steel pipes are used for the structure.

Kashmir Pakistan

 

[ghazi52]

.,.,.,
Afghanistan does not have enough medical supplies to treat the injured from an earthquake that killed 1,000 people this week, a senior official said.

An aftershock on Friday killed five more people.

Authorities earlier ended the search in remote southeastern mountains for survivors from the 6.1 magnitude earthquake that struck early on Wednesday, about 160 km (100 miles) southeast of Kabul, near the Pakistani border.

The US Geological Survey said the Friday earthquake, in almost exactly the same place, was magnitude 4.3.

About 2,000 people were injured and 10,000 houses were partially or completely destroyed in the Wednesday earthquake, Mohammad Nassim Haqqani, a spokesperson for the disaster ministry, told Reuters.

"The health ministry does not have enough drugs, we need medical aid and other necessities because it's a big disaster," he said.

The epicentre of the Wednesday earthquake was in a region of arid mountains dotted with small settlements that was often the scene of clashes during Afghanistan's decades of war.

A health ministry official said the aftershock killed five people but there was no immediate word on the extent of new damage and injuries.

Poor communications and only very basic roads have hampered relief efforts in a country grappling with a humanitarian crisis that deteriorated sharply after the Taliban took over last August as U.S.-led international forces withdrew.

The disaster is a major test for the hard-liners, who have been largely isolated; shunned by many because of worries about human rights and cut off from much direct international assistance because of sanctions.

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates all said on Thursday they planned to send aid. Supplies from Pakistan have already crossed the border.

India, which has a strained relationship with the Taliban, said it had sent 27 tonnes of supplies on two flights to be handed over to international aid agencies.

Haqqani, speaking before the aftershock, said the search for survivors had been called off, some 48 hours after the disaster struck.

"The search operation has finished," he said.

He did not elaborate on why. People have been pulled alive from the rubble of other earthquakes after considerably more time.

Large parts of South Asia are seismically active because a tectonic plate known as the Indian plate is pushing north into the Eurasian plate.

In 2015, an earthquake struck the remote Afghan northeast, killing several hundred people in Afghanistan and nearby northern Pakistan.

 

[Maula Jatt]

God bless the people of Afghanistan in this time of hardship
can we do something to help as individuals? any place to donate?

Afghanistan Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund, organized by Inam Syed

This fundraiser is on behalf of Rashid Khan: Yesterday, on the 21st of June… Inam Syed needs your support for Afghanistan Earthquake Relief and Recovery Fund

www.gofundme.com

 

[kingQamaR]

Sorry to hear, ; regardless of what you think of the country, its culture or politics, it is sad when in a blink of an eye, people wake up to such pain, losing everything and some, their lives! I hope they get the help they need