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Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Eighty Thousand Dead In Asian Quake?

MSNBC is reporting that regional death tolls are much higher than the official figures:
New figures released by regional officials on Wednesday pushed the death toll in South Asia’s earthquake to more than 79,000, about half each in Pakistani-held Kashmir and the country’s North West Frontier Province.

The figures are significantly higher than the official death toll of 42,000 put out each day by the central government, whose count has lagged behind the local count since the early days of the disaster.
One of the regional officials is cited as predicting that even these death tolls will go higher as equipment is brought in to clear roads. There is a box to the left of the article which lists aid organizations collecting for the victims. The one I chose was Mercy Corps based on a personal recommendation.

Mercy Corps:
With nighttime temperatures plunging to just above freezing, relief workers are racing against time to secure food, medicine and shelter for earthquake survivors in Pakistan before winter weather further complicates aid deliveries. Mercy Corps needs your help to expand direct medical assistance to remote mountain communities, where infections and disease threaten to drive up a rising death toll now estimated at 54,000.
And see this article as well. They say they are in it for the long term, and that is what will be needed. I don't trust the UN any more. About the only good thing one can say about this quake is that so far it has killed less people than the tsunami, but the affected region is in the mountains and as winter comes on many more people could die. Aftershocks continue.

Please, if you can, select a charity and contribute something. At least 3 million people are without shelter and many have injuries. They need shelter, food, water and medicine desperately, and the time frame for getting this done is very short.


Comments:
The numbers are staggering- beyong belief.
 
All that remains is for the world to try to keep those numbers from increasing. It is staggering.
 
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