Rain, Snow Halt Quake Relief Flights

28/11/2005| IslamWeb

Rains and winter’s first snowfall hit the earthquake-devastated areas of Azad Kashmir and the North- West Frontier Province on Sunday, halting relief helicopter flights and bringing feared chill that could cause more deaths.

Weather officials and witnesses said the entire belt hit by the October 8 quake received scattered rains since early morning while high mountains received an early snowfall.

The met office forecast that the pattern would continue until Tuesday.
Officials and residents of the quake-hit areas said bad weather disrupted flights of helicopters carrying relief supplies while survivors living in tents or make-shift shelters shivered with cold. However, relief supplies by road were not interrupted.

The United Nations and relief agencies have voiced fears that lack of winterised tents and shelters could cause a second wave of deaths during winter in the region where the 7.6-magnitude tremors killed over 73,000 people and rendered about three million homeless.
Residents of some mountain villages, contacted by telephone, said blankets and quilts would not protect them from biting cold while they lived in leaking tents with no heating arrangement. They could not burn firewood in or outside tents while it rained and had no electric or gas-fired heaters.

Among the worst sufferers were those living in Neelum Valley of Azad Kashmir and Kaghan Valley of the NWFP.

A Met office statement said scattered rains and snowfall over the hills had occurred in upper NWFP, upper Punjab and Kashmir.

It said the northern parts of the country were ‘under the influence of a westerly wave’ expected to produce more scattered rain, thunderstorm and snow in the next 24 hours over high mountains above 7,000 feet from sea level in the quake-hit areas.
These areas, it said, would include Muzaffarabad, Rawalakot, Bagh and Chakothi in Azad Kashmir and Abbottabad, Balakot, Mansehra, Batagram, Kohistan, Shangla, Kaghan and Naran in the NWFP.

Although no record of the overnight minimum temperature in the quake-hit areas of the NWFP was available, it was four degrees Celsius in Muzaffarabad town though it must have been below freezing point in the mountains as nearby Murree recorded minus 4C. Residents feared the temperature would dip further after the region received more rains and snow.

A weather forecast for South Asia issued by the British met office predicted temperatures as low as -8C to -20C in the highest villages on Monday and Tuesday, 6C to 10C in low-lying areas and 3C in Muzaffarabad on Monday and 2C on Tuesday.

“Mostly unsettled weather with showers or longer outbreaks of rain is expected throughout Monday,” it said. “Snowfall is expected above 7,000 feet. On Tuesday, little change is likely at first before fine and drier weather gradually follows from the west.”

The met office in Islamabad said Malam Jabba in Swat district received nine inches of snowfall followed by eight inches in Kaghan and Naran and two inches in Murree.

Hills in the Neelum Valley and some other parts of Muzaffarabad district were seen covered with fresh snow.

Residents of Batal and Chinarkot villages near Mansehra told journalists it was the first time in 18 years that the area received snowfall in November rather than the usual mid-December.

Snow layers were visible on lofty peaks surrounding the ruined Azad Kashmir capital as traumatised survivors still living on the mountains feared consequences of fast dipping temperatures.

Mohammad Javed, a resident of Rajkot village in the foothills of Makra mountain in the north of Muzaffarabad that has been cut off by landslides, told Dawn by his mobile phone: “Rains could create food shortage if helicopter flights remain suspended.

“Yes, the helicopters involved in the aid operations could not make any sorties today due to inclement weather, Maj Farooq Nasir of the ISPR confirmed and said that the air operations would resume once the weather was clear,” he said.

Amiruddin Mughal, a resident of Athmuqam in Neelum Valley, said that some active landslides on the main road in the valley had caused blockades but those were cleared by engineers with the help of heavy machinery.

Officials in Muzaffarabad claimed they had dumped foodstuffs in the valley that would be enough for next three months.

In Muzaffarabad, survivors braved the consequences of rainfall which had turned their squalid tent villages into muddy fields.

 “Our tents cannot withstand even a light rain…. What will happen in heavy downpour,” asked Zainab Bibi in one of the camps.

PHOTO CAPTION

A little boy who is an earthquake survivor keeps warm in a shelter in the devastated village of Pieer Chanasi, about 25 km (15.5 miles) east of Muzaffarabad, November 27, 2005. (REUTERS)