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| Sunday, 16 October 2005 |
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Rain halts vital air link to Pakistan quake victims MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan, Oct 15 (AFP) - Heavy rain and cloud halted air operations supplying desperately needed aid to survivors of Pakistan's devastating earthquake Saturday after a cold night rocked by new tremors. As millions of people spent a seventh night out in the open after their homes were wrecked in last Saturday's quake, Pakistani military officers said the vital helicopter-borne aid link had been cut by heavy storms. "Relief is going on by road but not by air," said Major Farooq Nasir, the spokesman for the army's emergency relief operations in quake-hit Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Thousands of destitute people huddled under plastic tents as the rain lashed the city and the surrounding mountains, the foothills of the Himalayas, where many more survivors remained cut off due to landslides and collapsed roads. Relief continued to arrive by road, and desperate survivors were seen scrambling in the rain and mud for packs of biscuits and other supplies which were being thrown from the backs of trucks. With Pakistani and international relief organisations struggling to cope with the country's worst natural disaster, helicopters have become the only aid lifeline to remote villages. Nasir said there were 93 helicopter sorties on Friday, bringing food and basic supplies and evacuating hundreds of injured survivors. The aircraft came from Pakistan as well as Germany, Switzerland and the United States. A moderate aftershock rattled the Pakistani capital Islamabad in the early hours of Saturday, causing people to run out of their homes for fear of buildings collapsing, witnesses said. The short jolt, measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale according to the US Geological Survey, hit at around 12:36am. |
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