My
husband Matthew and I were still asleep when awoken by
the bed shaking. Both a bit stunned, we sat up and saw
all of the built-ins had been flung open and were flapping
back and forth as if the room was possessed. My first
fleeting thought was that it was a bomb ' perhaps not
a bomb directed at our house but close enough by to produce
this shock. As Matthew later noted, why would people bother
to bomb the residence of the Second Secretary Political
from the Australian High Commission and his wife ' it
would hardly impact on world events! Being more disaster
savvy than I was, he knew it to be an earthquake. We rushed
to the bathroom and hopped into the bath. 
This
was my great idea. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind
where you store information (often useless information)
a message went off that said ' earthquake - bath. I have
since been told that I got my natural disasters confused
and a doorframe would have been more appropriate. After
the worst of the tremors had stopped we ran outside onto
the lawn. The whole sensation was bizarre. It was as though
a giant under the earth had decided to stretch and roll
over. At this stage we had no idea of the severity of
the quake or the destruction that had been wreaked.
We
now know that at 8:50:38 AM local time, 8th October, 2005
an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale occurred
unleashing a mass humanitarian disaster. The epicentre
was 93 kilometres north of Islamabad close to Muzaffarabad
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It has been called the
largest disaster that Pakistan has ever faced. As of today
it is estimated that at least 40,000 people have been
killed. This toll is expected to rise. The hardest hit
area is Pakistani administered Kashmir. In Muzaffarabad
alone 11,000 have been confirmed dead. Reports are saying
that the 600,000 people who inhabit Muzaffarabad are sleeping
outside, too scared to enter what remains of their buildings.
Balakot,
in North West Frontier Province is the gateway to the
Kaghan Valley. The valley has often been described as
one of the most beautiful valleys in Pakistan (which is
no mean feat given the sheer beauty of the mountains).
It is now destroyed. The Pakistani government have said
that 3,500 have been killed in the area, but many would
consider this a conservative figure. Eyewitness accounts
have reported that the centre of the town has been completely
obliterated and that aid is coming in a trickle. Parents
have been pulling their dead children out of what remained
of the schools with nothing but small shovels.
United
Nations (UN) Undersecretary General and Emergency Relief
Coordinator, Jan Egleand, after visiting Muzaffarabad
said that he feared that they were losing the race against
time in the small villages, which are still cut off. Twenty
per cent of the affected areas are yet to receive any
type of help. Out of the remote valleys and mountains
people are walking for days on end to reach help. They
bring with them horror stories of families and villages
completely destroyed. Only those strong enough to walk
are making it out, carrying the injured on makeshift stretchers.
Sheer desperation has led some aid workers to abandon
their trucks and set off on foot to reach the towns before
it is too late. Helicopters are unable to reach some areas,
as the villages are literally perched on mountains.
Friends
that have been reporting from the hardest hit areas have
told me that the enormity of the situation is almost incomprehensible.
Aftershocks are still occurring that in some cases has
hampered the search effort. It was today announced that
tent villages are going to be set up around Islamabad
and Rawalpindi to house the two million people who have
been left homeless, the first step in the rebuilding.
This
disaster is far from over.
