Earthquake

Citation

(1999), "Earthquake", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.1999.07308aac.005

Earthquake

Earthquake

6 February 1998 ­ Islamabad, Afghanistan

At least 3,600 people have been killed by a severe earthquake in the northern Afghan province of Takhar, a Pakistan-based Afghan news service reported today. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted sources in an opposition alliance opposing Afghanistan's Taleban Islamic movement as saying the quake hit the province on Wednesday (4 February). There was no independent confirmation of the report, which said the earthquake hit several districts north of the provincial capital Taloqan. More than 3,000 bodies had so far been recovered from debris, AIP quoted the sources as saying.

8 February 1998 ­ Some 250 people were killed and 50 injured in an aftershock that hit the same area of northern Afghanistan today where thousands may have died in a mid-week earthquake, the Afghan embassy said. Diplomats at the embassy in the Tajik capital Dushanbe said the latest quake was concentrated on the remote Rustaq district where the initial disaster struck on Wednesday (4 February). The diplomats put the overall death toll at about 4,400. They said the aftershock was significant but not nearly as strong as the main quake. A spokesman for the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) aid organization, speaking from the opposition-held Afghan stronghold of Mazar-i-Sharif, said the scene was one of devastation with villages reduced to rubble and poor roads rendered impassable by quake damage.

9 February 1998 ­ Five days after a disastrous earthquake hit northern Afghanistan, aid workers and diplomats still have no precise figures on the real scale of the tragedy. Estimates of the number of victims of the earthquake, which hit Afghanistan's north-eastern province of Takhar last Wednesday (4 February), range from strikingly precise figures to numbers roughly rounded to hundreds. "According to my information, 3,681 people died", said Abdul Rahim, Afghan Ambassador to neighbouring Tajikistan. Rahim said another 250 people had died in a strong aftershock which hit the Rustaq district early yesterday. An official from the local mission of the International Committee of Red Cross said some 3,300 people had died in Wednesday's earthquake. He said there was still no information on the number of casualties of the aftershock. Rupert Colville, regional information officer for the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, said a UN helicopter would fly to the disaster area later today to assess the real scale of the tragedy and decide the volume of aid needed. Yesterday's intended flight was cancelled due to bad weather. The Belgian branch of the Medecins Sans Frontieres aid organization appears to be the only international aid team that has reached the disaster-hit area, Colville said. An ICRC aircraft landed near Taloqan, the key town of Takhar province, yesterday. An ICRC official said the aircraft had 500 blankets and 500 kg of medicines on board. More aid is likely to follow. Colville said a UN convoy of trucks with 20 tonnes of food, blankets, medicines and other items, driving from the north Afghan town of Faisabad, had reached the town of Keshim, some 50 km from Rustaq. However, he said: "The convoy will now have to cross a major river, and the only bridge is in a terrible condition". Tajik presidential spokesman Zafar Saidov said a group of Tajik doctors with 300 kg of medicines had been sent to administer aid in Afghanistan. Continuing fighting for control of northern Afghanistan between the Taleban and the opposition is also affecting relief operations. One aid worker said the Taleban were now in control of part of Rustaq district, and both sides were blaming each other for continued shooting in the troubled area.

10 February 1998 ­ United Nations and Western aid agencies say the Afghan claim of at least 4,000 deaths in last week's earthquake is accurate. International aid workers reached the quake-hit Rustaq valley of northern Afghanistan yesterday evening, five days after the earthquake. A UN spokesman in Islamabad said today that a joint team of UN and Western aid agencies crossed into the valley by horse and donkey as they had to leave their trucks behind since the earthquake has destroyed the road that links it with the outside world. Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the UN Office of Coordination for Humanitarian Assistance in Afghanistan, said the first village they entered had been completely destroyed. The team reported at least 320 people had died in the village while 400 families lost their homes. The Northern Alliance of the former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, which controls the area, claims the earthquake had completely destroyed 20 villages in Rustaq valley.

10 February 1998 ­ A third aftershock rattled north Afghanistan today as relief agencies battled bad weather to bring supplies to countless homeless and hurt. Two relief flights from the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, were cancelled because of poor weather in the Routaq region of northern Afghanistan where up to 4,000 people are feared dead from a devastating quake last Wednesday (4 February). Relief agencies said similar missions planned from Tajikistan were also grounded by low cloud and rain.

Families shivered in heavy snowfalls today in the earthquake-devastated village of Ghanj in northern Afghanistan, where worsening weather dimmed their hopes for international aid. A representative of aid agency Medicins Sans Frontieres said the earthquake, which struck last Wednesday (4 February), had claimed about 4,200 lives. Ghanj was said by Afghan and aid officials to be the worst hit of up to 28 villages in the country's northern region of Rustaq, where 1,800 people lost their lives in last week's earthquake and another, smaller quake at the weekend. Aftershocks were still being felt in the village yesterday. The villagers' enemy is now the biting cold and heavy mists which have prevented aircraft from bringing aid to the remote area. It began snowing heavily today, adding to their woes. "The main problem is now the weather", said Sheila Hall, medical co-ordinator for Medicins Sans Frontieres, who put the agency's estimate for total dead at 4,200. "We've a lot of medical supplies on the way but it's only on the way", she said in the regional capital of Rustaq. Two aircraft from the International Red Cross were unable to reach the area because of bad weather today. A lack of transport made it difficult for Afghans from the remote villages to reach Rustaq for supplies and medical attention.

14 February 1998 ­ Heavy snow fell on the quake-hit Rustaq region of northern Afghanistan today, piling up fresh problems for a relief operation for 30,000 homeless and hungry. Relief officials said snow, low cloud and rain continued to prevent large aircraft from landing and added to the urgency of organizing a $2.5 million airdrop in the region. A UN convoy from the northeastern town of Faizabad has taken three days so far to battle over broken roads to Taloqan, the provincial capital of quake-hit Takhar province, carrying 50 tonnes of emergency supplies, UN officials said. The failure of the relief operation to land large aircraft in the region underlined the need for an airdrop, which was still being discussed and organized, relief officials said. They said experts were now examining the possibility of parachuting goods into the region, which is a mixture of remote mountain regions and flatlands. A fleet of helicopters was being assembled to transport supplies to the hardest-hit regions, many of which are inaccessible by road.

17 February 1998 ­ The United Nations hopes to get its first big relief convoy to the earthquake-hit region in north Afghanistan tomorrow and is planning to airlift more aid from neighbouring Pakistan, a UN official said today. Snow and cloudy weather continued to prevent airlift operation to the region today, aid officials said.

19 February 1998 ­ Two Russian helicopters loaded with more than 10 tonnes of humanitarian aid for victims of the earthquake in Afghanistan flew to the disaster area from Tajikistan today, a Russian spokesman said. The spokesman said the helicopters carried 9.4 tonnes of powdered milk and one tonne of medicine. The International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday it hoped to begin an airdrop of emergency supplies in the zone today with a chartered Lockheed Hercules L100 cargo aircraft. The aircraft, which has a capacity of 16 tonnes, left Brussels on Monday and is in Peshawar in north-west Pakistan, close to the Afghan border, where there are stocks of emergency supplies. An ICRC spokesman said it would make two drops a day of food and non-food items. Russia has allocated a total of 22 tonnes of food and one tonne of medicine, the spokesman said. The rest of the food, as well as 20 doctors, all of which arrived in Dushanbe late yesterday, would arrive in the earthquake zone soon.