Weather clears, aid pours into Pakistan (AP) Updated: 2005-10-12 18:55
Helicopters flying in clear skies delivered aid to earthquake survivors
Wednesday, a day after rain and hail grounded efforts.
Pakistani military load relief goods onto a
U.S. helicopter for aid to earthquake survivors in the Kashmiri part of
Pakistan at Chaklala airbase in Rawalpindi, on Wednesday Oct 12, 2005.
Relief supplies from about 30 countries poured in for victims of
Pakistan's worst earthquake Wednesday but hopes of finding survivors
started to fade with the death toll already believed to be more than
35,000. [AP] |
Relief supplies poured into Pakistan from about 30 countries, including from
longtime archrival India.
Rescuers on Wednesday pulled a dust-covered 5-year-old out of the rubble, a
shot of good news as hopes faded of finding other earthquake survivors. "I want
to drink," the girl whispered.
Zarabe Shah's neighbors on Tuesday recovered the bodies of her father and two
of her sisters. Her mother and another two sisters survived.
Many bodies were still buried beneath leveled buildings, and the United
Nations warned of the threat of measles, cholera and diarrhea outbreaks among
the millions of survivors.
The 7.6-magnitude quake on Saturday demolished whole communities, mostly in
the Himalayan region of Kashmir. The U.N. estimated that some 4 million people
have been affected, including 2 million who have lost their homes.
U.S., Pakistani, German and Afghan helicopters resumed aid flights suspended
because of stormy weather. They brought food, medicines and other supplies to
Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's portion of divided Kashmir, and then
ferried out the injured to hospitals. Some 50,000 Pakistani troops joined the
relief effort.
Still, residents in Muzaffarabad were desperate, mobbing
trucks with food and water and grabbing whatever they could. The weak were
pushed aside.
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