The Quake

The plan was also to head for a day or two up the four hour mountainy road to Balakot or Musafrabad, which held the epicenter of the massive earthquake demoliting the region, but due to time, weather, and safety issues, our trip had to be cancelled.  A huge dissapointment as I really wanted to be there to see first hand the worst of it all. So instead, we saw some of the damage in Islamabad itself (primarily the plummeting of one of the Margalla tower residence, killing many people we all knew).  We also visited the PIMS hospital, the main hospital coordinating all the medical relief efforts for the earthquake in the immediate vicinity, and the satellite stations up in the mountain areas.  Things are still in process, especially for the still difficult to get mountains and valleys.  Not to mention the significant amount of subacute and long term care and provisions that is going to be required for the victims.  This includes medical issues such as rehabilitation from injury and fractures and amputations, infections, exposure issues, and of coures social issues such as housing and water and food.  Shelter remains a problem, as tents were given out on a randomized basis, with some people unlucky in the draw, remaining homeless.  Even with tents, most of them are not winterized, providing little from the perils of the wintry snow and cold.

During my visit to the hospital I talked to many of the victims, mostly women and children, as the men were out generally working in the hills and fields, as the women fell victim to the ceilings of their homes, and the children succumbed to the collapsing concrete of the schools they sat in for their morning classes.  Tens of thousands of children were killed.  A generation of people residing in the northern terretories was essentially wiped out of existence.  Cities have vanished.   It is a sad and terrible thought that should send shivers down everyone's spine.  Most of the surviving victims with injuries were crush injuries.  I saw x-rays of femurs and tibial fractures shattered and in pieces.  Virftually everyone had external fixation of a limb or amputation.  Amazingly, less then a thousand people of the hundreds of thousands (<1%) of injuries required amputation -- and that is because most of those with that serious injuries in those regions didn't have a chance to survive.

She was at home with her 3 kids, and luckily she survived.  Her 4 month old was not as lucky.

Remnants of the 13 story Margalla Towers.  Mostly bodies and limbs were extracted.