8th of October, 2022 - Today marks the 17th anniversary of the 2005 Earthquakes. These devastating earthquakes were one of the biggest catastrophes faced by Pakistan.
Damages:
87,350 Died (19,000 of them were children)
- 138,000 Injured
- 3.5 million rendered homeless
- 500,000 families affected
- 250,000 farm animals died
The earthquake was so intense that it impacted Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China & India.
Initial earthquake:
The initial earthquake started at 08:50:39AM Pakistan Standard Time (PST) on 8 October 2005. Its epicenter was 19 kilometers north of Muzaffarabad, the most affected region. It was merely just 7.6 on the Ritcher scale. However, the fatal aspect of this earthquake was that its epicenter was just 15 Km deep. To date, it's the deadliest earthquake in South Asia.
Post-initial earthquake:
It is pertinent to mention here that it was the most savage catastrophe not because of the initial earthquake but the 978 aftershocks that were 4.0 and higher. The aftershocks resulted in constant landslides which in turn led to most restrictions in reaching the affected victims in the northern regions of Pakistan.
The reason behind the widespread fatalities:
In addition to that Saturday is a normal working day in that region so many students were in their schools which collapsed & all of them Perished. It was the month of Ramadan and most of the deceased were in their home fasting & sleeping to cope with the fast at the time the disaster struck them.
Respons & rescue:
Initially, only air support was possible to the affected areas which commenced soon after the initial earthquake on the instructions of Pervez Musharraf, the then-president of Pakistan. However, given the limited resources of the air fleet, the operation was nowhere compared to what was needed so soonly back-ups from US airbases from Afghanistan were called in. Additionally, the entire world immensely helped Pakistan in this hour of need.
The government of Pakistan arranged a donor conference in Islamabad and various entities pledged around $6.2 Billion.
Concluding thought:
The real extent of the 2005 earthquake still can't be accurately calculated. However, one can observe that Pakistan has learned nothing from the 2005 Earthquakes. Because the 2022 floods repeated the same level of mismanagement as there was 17 years ago.