quote: The Pakistan earthquake toll has reached 18,000 dead and 41,000 injured, Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan has told CNN
quote: The quake was "quite shallow," said David Applegate, senior science advisor for earthquake and geologic hazards for the U.S. Geological Survey. "That means the shaking is going to be very intense."
The fact that Islamabad was near the epicenter "means a fairly large urban population has experienced some strong shaking," Applegate said.
The National Earthquake Information Center put the quake at 7.6 magnitude, which it considers "major." The Pakistani Meteorological Department put the magnitude at 7.5, and Japan's Meteorological Agency put it at 7.8.
I guess Wrath of God 2005 isn't over yet. I wonder where we'll be asked to send donations to, or if we will be at all, what with the problems happening still within our own borders.
It would seem to me that the Red Crescent would take precedence over the Red Cross, and I wonder if we'll be cautioned against donating. The scale of the devastation is just so huge though, and all those people they are even now trying to help...there's no way we can just do nothing.
We have troops in Afghanistan and in Iraq, an air force base in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. We should muster some resources in the area and send in some manpower. Surely we can spare even 10,000 men and some medical equipment to help with the search and resuce operations, even just for a week during the critical periods.
posted
To tell the truth, I was incredibly surprised that no one had posted it earlier in the day. But I was hoping we could rally some support for these people. If not monetary, then certainly in our prayers.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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The appeal for help must surely be getting thin- we've had so many disasters this year. What this planet needs is a disaster force whose sole purpose is to go in, keep the peace, and carry out basic rescue functions.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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According to this article the US had pledged $100,000, plus the use of military helicopters.
I realize that we're in the midst of relief efforts of our own in this country, but a hundred thousand dollars? That's the sort of money that the government loses in it's collective couch cushions. Seriously, I know someone in who works in a government building that is being repainted and recarpeted, and that project is going to cost $85,000.
I agree with Teshi that an international disaster relief force is a very good idea. Beefing up the Red Cross would probably be the easiest way to get such a thing off the ground, I'd think.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I think it's early to criticize. It'll probably be a week or two before governments make formal pledges of aid of any significant size.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Noemon, that's an initial offer. More will be forthcoming. For example, Britain's initial aid amounts to 10M Rupees, about $167,480.
No matter how worthy the cause, it takes some time to release dollars from a government.
Rice and Bush have already both said more aid is coming.
It's getting so the government shouldn't ever release emergency funds until it can release them all, because every time there's a disaster this happens.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
I was going to mention that as well, Dag....the same thing happened with the tusnami, we made an initial offer of aid and people jumped all over us, both internationally and here at home.
Our actual contrabution as much higer, as it always is in these situations.
Keep in mind that we have no obligation to provide ANYTHING, and we are still reeling from our own disastors here at home.
I am not saying that we shouldn't help, but that it is beyond rude for othercountries to comment on our level of aid considering how much ewe spend on international relief efforts each year, even without disastors like thisn happening every 2-3 months. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Think of the first offer as what you could give someone out of your wallet, and the rest what you can give after you go home, balance the checkbook, change some spending plans, and move some funds around.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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I don't know about an international agency or force for disaster relief. Something like that should be done through the UN. The last thing we need is more beauracracy.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I feel so bad for these people! I wish there was something I could do. It seems so coldhearted for me to just think "I can't help" and try not to think about it, but I overextended myself with Katrina relief. I think I'm going to pray about it and try to think of something I can do.
Oh I can think of one thing I can do. I can give blood. That benefits the Red Cross about like donating $60 or something, and that funds disaster relief.
Maybe I could think of some service projects I could do as well.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I hate to say this, but I'm getting burnt out with disasters. I take things like this hard every single time. I cry myself to sleep. And all of them coming on the heels of one another like this... It's getting hard for me to handle. And they say another hurricane is forming. I am having trouble sleeping. I have a mysterious pain in my neck that feels like whiplash, but I didn't do anything to it. My IBS is acting up, and my morning sickness is getting worse instead of better.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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They're saying the toll is up to 30,000 now.
Numbers like that are just so hard to deal with - at a certain point, the mounting death toll just doesn't mean much in any concrete way. It's the individual stories that make me cry, not the numbers.
I remember watching an Imax a few years ago about earthquakes, and a lot of its focus was on the fact that since earthquake fault lines are for the most part known, the experts can predict which big areas are at risk for earthquakes sometime in the future - but "sometime in the future" isn't enough for poor countries to actually do anything about the fact that the housing standards and such are so flimsy that a bad situation is made so many, many times worse.
Is it just because I'm older now, and am actually hearing about all these disasters, or does it really seem that in the past several years there have been a good deal more large-scale disasters (human and natural) than previously?
Posts: 196 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Me too. I feel like the Earth is tearing herself apart. I keep on wondering who's going to be next, not whether or not there will be a next. That scares me.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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Don't forget the tropical storm that caused a few hundred, if not thousand deaths in Mexico. They were thinking of declaring an entire village a mass grave that was washed away by a mudslide.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Lyrhawn -- also the day of the massive earthquake in Asia..the same day.. Central America also had an earthquake (smaller, like 5.4) in El Salvador -- the same area hit by the tropical storm a week earlier. The sodden ground gave way much more easily.
But the entire news of that quake was overshadowed by the quake in Pakistan, which was much more severe. I wouldn't have heard about it myself if I hadn't really be purusing Google news deeply.
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And don't forget the 6.0 quake today in Banda Aceh--as if they needed another one.
It will not end. There has been a trend towards superdisasters for over 20 yrs. The way to mitigate is through better use of information.
The best way to contribute is through the Red Cross or through your church. Be aware of organizations--many tend to take up to 12-15% for overhead and you never know where your dollars end up.
Posts: 56 | Registered: May 2005
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It's been said that earthquakes in particular are increasing in quantity and in strength. Earthquake caused the tsunami, now this one- I wouldn't even be too surprised that the earthquake last December may have caused this agitated hurricane season- changing the major weather systems in an area that big- got to have caused something. (Butterfly in China sort of thing- only it's a massive earthquake instead)
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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