Remarks on the 7.6 tragedy

The unofficial toll is now around 40,000. I am depressed after talking to friends and family in Pakistan. A few things struck me about the disaster, the fact that entire villages have disappeared in tragic.
The creeping cold and freezing rain is going to hamper the relief efforts as Kashmir settles into winter. The panic of Karachites as the coastal city and Balochistan were hit by low intensity tremors, and of course the Muhib-watani of my nation. As a US resident, I am destined to miss both tragic and joyous moments. I missed the 1992 Cricket World Cup Win, the devastation of Karachi during operation cleanup in 1992, the bloodless coup of Gen/President Pervaiz Musharraf in 1999 and now the one time where the nation is united and working together. I wish I was there to do some good for once. But I just blog . . .

Some quotes from friends,

'Karachi is going nuts with the whole relief work for the earthquake. It’s good to see that, other than the burgers there for poondi and rolling around smoking up.'

'We are so engrossed in magnifying our silly problems and there comes a catastrophe .....a real eye opener ....this is what we need a shiver from the earth and every thing can just vanish ... it is unimaginable destruction, generations are destroyed .....I cant forget the eyes of a 3 yr old who was rescued after 3 days ...they were stoned ....black holes .....although it is the time when the country needs youth , a lot of I know are going with rescue teams to the affected areas'

'Yaar the relief effort is going on but the damage I am afraid is way too much, way too much. Although, when I was at the PAF camp in Karachi yesterday I saw a true depiction of national spirit so this has really brought the awam together...'

'I wanted to share an eye witness account of the situation in Kashmir from my sister who was stationed there with her husband.
They were located northeast of Muzaffarbad near the LoC where their ADS and home were on the slope of a mountain overseeing 3 or 4 villages in a valley surrounded by tall mountains. They were inside their home at the time the earthquake struck at which time their entire home; ceiling and walls just fell on them. They did not even have time to move. Both of them were buried under the rubble while the earth shook violently. My sister first and then her husband managed to crawl out of a small space where they could see some light. Both of them sustained injuries including fractures and cuts, however not life-threatening, Thank God. When they got out, in her words, the entire landscape & geography of the area had changed. The hill that usually was in front of them was no more and large chunks of entire mountain ridges, cliffs and tops were falling down on to the valley. There was a huge split in the earth directly ahead of them. If the loud sound of moving and falling mountains wasn’t devastating enough, they looked down in the valley only to see huge amounts of rubble. None of the structures in the villages (houses, schools, mosques) were there any more. As injured people started to reach them by foot, it was clear that at least 85-90% of the civilian population in that area had perished (approximately 3000-4000 people)'

And lastly our illustrious MNA Aitzaz Ahsan, deplores the US for sending eight helicopters when it has a thousand stationed in neighboring Afghanistan and the Saudi’s who have a fleet of 10,000 of which not a single one was send and lastly the refusal by the Army to use Indian helicopters.