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Covenant Evaluating Needs in Quake's Aftermath
ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN (October 10, 2005) - Governments and relief agencies
worldwide are pursuing ways to direct assistance to northern areas of
Pakistan and Kashmir following a 7.6 magnitude earthquake Saturday
morning that so far has accounted for more than 30,000 deaths.
David Husby, who with his wife, Ronna, serve as World Mission's Asia
regional coordinators for the Evangelical Covenant Church, says he is
working with the Covenant Church of India to determine in what ways
their ministries have been affected and explore appropriate ways in
which to respond.
Jim Sundholm, director of Covenant World Relief, likewise is already
working with some of the Covenant's relief partners to determine the
needs and the kinds of responses that would be most helpful.
The earthquake was felt across South Asia, from central Afghanistan to
western Bangladesh. Preliminary reports indicate 43,000 people injured,
though most observers expect that number to climb as reports from more
remote areas begin to filter in. Although the majority of
Indian-controlled Kashmir was spared the devastation, it is estimated
that 80 percent of the border town of Udi, India, was destroyed, CNN
News reports.
The epicenter of the earthquake was in Muzaffarabad, the capital of
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which sits in the Himalayan foothills 60
miles northeast of Islamabad. Also badly hit was Pakistan's Northwest
Frontier province, where many villages were completely leveled and roads
destroyed, making travel all but impossible. "In certain areas, almost
entire towns, they have vanished from the scene," Pakistan's military
spokesman, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, told CNN. The country, he said, has
launched its largest relief operation. CNN's Matthew Chance, reporting
Monday from the city of Balakot in the Northwest Frontier province,
described a "scene of utter devastation," saying nearly every building
in the tourist town of 250,000, had been destroyed. People picked
through the rubble with pick axes and their bare hands, looking for
family and friends, Chance said, adding there were only four doctors to
serve the thousands of injured.
More information on the disaster and the Covenant's response will be
posted to this online Covenant news report as it becomes available.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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