Disaster Time
Last Saturday catastrophe came to Pakistan, the country was not prepared for it! Calamities always come as an unpleasant surprise. At 8.55 am on Saturday Oct 8, 2005 the region from Kabul in the west to New Delhi in the east was severely rocked. Cities as far away as Dhaka felt some tremors, the shocks went on uptil 9:05 am. Epicentered 95 kms northeast of Islamabad, the most powerful earthquake to hit this region in a 100 years was recorded at 7.6 on the Richter Scale, the main focus of death and destruction targetting northern Pakistan in a wide swath from Peshawar to Azad Kashmir. Media attention riveted the first morning on rescue efforts directed at the two collapsed blocks of “Margalla Towers” in Islamabad’s posh F-10 sector, diverting attention from the massive human and material devastation in Azad Kashmir, Kaghan and Kohistan valleys till hours later. With electricity and telephones lines down reports about a greater disaster in the mountains came in patches, e.g. 30% houses collapsed in Mansehra, 60% in Muzaffarabad, 80% in Rawalakot and Balakot etc, entire villages perched on the hillsides disappearing in mudslides. In the next 24 hours 40 aftershocks (of which only 17-18 were perceptible) added to the panic.
