Afghanistan earthquake updates: Rescuers search for survivors

Hawa and her daughter Safia, at a hospital in Sharana in Paktika province, Afghanistan, today, Thursday, credit… Kiana Hairi for The New York Times

SHARANA, Afghanistan – With hopes fading of finding more survivors of Afghanistan’s deadliest earthquake in decades on Thursday, a mother lay in a hospital bed in this eastern city with her one-year-old daughter sleeping next to her in a crinkled purple dress.

Their brick home collapsed when the 5.9-magnitude earthquake struck early Wednesday morning, and Eve, 30, woke up suffocating in the dust. She could feel her daughter’s chest barely moving under her hand.

They survived the disaster, but four other Hawa children were killed along with 17 other relatives as the earthquake turned the windswept mountainous region near the border with Pakistan into a canvas of death and despair.

Even as the extent of the damage began to become clear, with the first Taliban government helicopters ferrying food and relief supplies to hard-hit areas, officials said rescue efforts were dwindling, leaving little hope of finding more survivors. Attention was drawn to providing assistance to the wounded and shelter to those left homeless due to a disaster believed to have claimed more than 1,000 lives.

The difficult terrain and extreme poverty of the region in southeastern Afghanistan posed a particular challenge to the aid effort. Some residents live in mud and thatch houses, and entire villages are believed to have been nearly destroyed in the earthquake. Thousands spent the night in the unusually cold, some of them struck by rain, wind, and even snow.

The US Geological Survey said the worst damage appeared to be in Paktika Province, although the 5.9-magnitude quake’s epicenter was about 28 miles to the southwest.

“The aid agencies’ aid included health assistance, food, tents and blankets, but the crisis is widespread in the area and it is not enough,” said Sanaullah Masoom, spokesperson for the governor of Paktika state. “We call on relief agencies to provide more food, health and humanitarian assistance.”

The Taliban government said some supplies have arrived in the country, including by air from Iran and Qatar and by road from Pakistan. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban government, said that eight trucks loaded with cargo have been transported from Pakistan to the affected areas, and more supplies have arrived in the capital, Kabul, and will soon be delivered to the earthquake area.

The area is far from many clinics or hospitals that can help the wounded. The Afghan official news agency reported that the Afghan Ministry of Defense sent seven helicopters and a medical team to transport the wounded to military and civilian hospitals. Dr. Hikmatullah Esmat, director of public health in Paktika state, said about 70 people were taken on Wednesday for treatment to hospital in Sharana, the provincial capital.

Including Eve and descriptive. She added, crying, that the earthquake killed Hawa’s three sons, another daughter and 17 of her relatives in their village in Jayan district.

Amidst clouds of dust and darkness, Eve was able to make her father try in vain to lift the bricks that had collapsed and buried the other members of the family. Unable to move them, he ran towards the center of the village screaming for help.

“I didn’t expect to survive,” she said from the hospital bed. She was trapped for five hours under a pile of bricks, supporting her left hand to prevent the rubble from crushing Safiya.

Five hours later, when daylight broke out and torrential rain fell on what was left of the town, residents of nearby villages began flocking to the area to try to help.

“I’ve lost everything, my whole world, my whole family, I have no hope for the future,” said Eve, her eyes wet with tears. “I wish I had lost everything, that we had all died, because there is no one to take care of us, to find us money or food now.”

Masoum said the rescue operation in Paktika ended on Wednesday evening. Isabelle Mossard-Carlsen, head of the Afghanistan office at the United Nations office in Afghanistan, said local authorities in Afghanistan had told international organizations that search and rescue efforts in the areas were 90 percent complete, and relief groups were focusing on providing shelter and care for survivors. to coordinate humanitarian affairs.

Temperatures rose rapidly on Thursday, Carlsen said, raising fears that people who have experienced a frigid night will soon be left in the sweltering heat. She said the lack of clean drinking water and sanitation could lead to the emergence of diseases in the coming days and weeks, exacerbating the crisis.

“It’s layers and layers of aggravating factors,” she said. “After the immediate life-saving response, these communities will take a long time to recover. There has already been a very significant vulnerability in the area.”

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