After a major earthquake left more than 35,000 dead in Asia and a strong hurricane killed at least 600 in Central America, appeals for help were made to the world community from those in the affected areas.
The president of the Pakistani bishops' conference expressed his grief following the country's worst-ever earthquake and urged all Pakistani Christians to contribute one day's wages for relief aid.
Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, conference president, expressed his "profound shock and grief at the large-scale destruction of life and property caused by the great earthquake" that struck Pakistan, India and Afghanistan Oct. 8. He said prayers were offered in all Pakistani Catholic churches the next day for the eternal peace of the deceased and for the recovery of thousands of injured survivors, according to an Oct. 10 statement issued by his office.
"This was the greatest natural disaster in our country's history," he wrote, calling upon all Christians "to do their part" in relief efforts. He urged them to contribute one day's salary to the President's Relief Fund and announced a donation of 500,000 rupees (US$8,357) from the Pakistani Catholic Church, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand.
The earthquake along the Pakistan-India border was magnitude 7.6. Its epicenter was near the town of Muzaffarabad, almost 60 miles northeast of Islamabad in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
Pakistani officials said Oct. 11 that the death toll from the earthquake would surpass 35,000 people, and tens of thousands are injured. Officials in India Oct. 11 reported a death toll of 1,300. Some news reports said up to 5 million people were homeless.
Father Sebastian Kalapura, principal of St. Joseph School in Baramula, in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, said the devastation is "very visible" in villages along road between Srinagar, India, and Muzaffarabad. The priest had accompanied the Caritas India team to Uri, one of the worst-hit areas on the Indian side of the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan. The two nations established the line in 1972, after fighting over the disputed territory since they gained independence together in 1947.
Father Kalapura told UCA News Oct. 10 that assessing the damage is difficult, because rain and landslides blocked roads to interior villages. Army personnel were clearing the roads to reach those villages.
"We are trying to help people on two fronts -- health and shelter," Father Kalapura said. He said his school would erect tents for temporary housing and church workers planned to transport wounded quake survivors from villages to St. Joseph Hospital, which is attached to the school.
"We don't have doctors, so Caritas has promised to send a few doctors from New Delhi," Father Kalapura said.
Meanwhile, Catholic agencies abroad continued to pledge assistance. Initial contributions were pledged by various church organizations and dioceses, including $500,000 from Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency. CRS, which has worked in South Asia for more than 50 years, said it planned to raise up to $5 million for longer-term recovery efforts.
The following U.S., Canadian and British aid agencies, part of the Caritas Internationalis network, are working with partner agencies in affected countries and are accepting donations. Funds should be earmarked for "South Asian earthquake relief."
---Catholic Relief Services: phone (800) 736-3467; online at www.catholicrelief.org; or mail to CRS, P.O. Box 17090, Baltimore, MD 21203-7090.
---Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace: phone (888) 664-3387; online at www.devp.org; or mail to Development and Peace, 5633 Sherbrooke St. East, Montreal, Quebec, H1N 1A3, Canada.
---Catholic Agency for Overseas Development: phone: (44-20) 7733-7900; online at www.cafod.org; or mail to CAFOD, FREEPOST, Romero Close, Stockwell Road, London, SW9 9BR, England.
The Catholic Near East Welfare Association also is accepting donations. Those who wish to give may call (800) 442-6392; donate online at www.cnewa.org; or mail donations to CNEWA, 1011 First Ave., New York, NY 10022-4195.
Hurricane toll mounts
The death count from Hurricane Stan continued to rise in Mexico and Central America as rescue workers reached towns cut off by massive floods and mudslides.
The storm, which churned into Mexico's Gulf Coast Oct. 4 before unleashing heavy rains onto much of Central America, left more than 600 confirmed dead and more than 1,000 more missing in the region, though relief workers said the number could be much higher and warned that residents could be dogged by disease and food shortages for months.
The storm slammed into the Mexican state of Veracruz as a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph, although it caused relatively little damage on the coast and quickly dissipated into a tropical storm.
But as the storm moved south through Mexico and hovered over Guatemala and El Salvador for several days, rivers overflowed to swallow neighborhoods and destroy roads, and mountainsides soaked with torrential downpours collapsed onto towns.
A massive mudslide in Guatemala buried the entire village of Panabaj, killing as many as 1,400 people, local authorities told Reuters, the British news agency. Flash floods tore apart sections of San Salvador. And in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas, relief workers said food supplies were running low as now-nonexistent roads left many towns completely isolated.
"It's still a red-alert situation," said Rick Jones, country representative for the Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador, in an Oct. 9 telephone interview from San Salvador. CRS is the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency.
CRS is working with dioceses throughout Central America to deliver emergency aid to victims, and Jones said he was worried there could be more mudslides because more rain was forecast for the region.
"People are still very cautious. There's a lot of anxiety about how much more water we can take," Jones said.
San Salvador suffered the majority of the more than 70 confirmed deaths in El Salvador, and more than 62,000 Salvadorans were living in shelters, Jones said.
El Salvador's woes were compounded by two currently active volcanoes. The Ilamatepec volcano erupted Oct. 1 and threatened to cause more mudslides as it continued to rumble along with the San Miguel volcano.
One week after Stan hit, rescue efforts continued, albeit slowly, throughout the region, as many isolated villages were still not reachable.
"The mudslide that buried Panabaj was probably one of many such tragedies," said Lane Bunkers, CRS country representative in Guatemala. "It's very, very bad, and as we get out to more villages we are going to find more and more deaths."
Bunkers and other relief workers said deforestation of hillsides was partially to blame for the severity of the mudslides. Trees work to hold mountain soil firm, lowering the risk of mudslides.
"Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call," Bunkers said.
The scope of the flooding is also due to the timing of the storm.
"The storm hit in the sixth month of a six-month rainy season," Jones said. "Any more heavy rains will likely cause flash floods" in El Salvador.
Guatemala was the hardest-hit country in the region, with more than 500 deaths already confirmed. Vice President Eduardo Stein Barillas told local radio that rescue workers might not dig out Panabaj, instead leaving the buried village as a national cemetery.
In Mexico, 30 people reportedly perished, mostly in Chiapas.
"The situation is critical," said Eufemio Flores, who coordinates disaster relief for Mexico's chapter of Caritas, a confederation of international Catholic humanitarian organizations.
In a telephone interview from Tapachula, Flores said some 5,000 people in Chiapas were still in shelters being run by the Catholic Church. In the Tapachula area alone, hundreds were still unaccounted for, he said.
"The outlook is depressing. They don't know where their families are," Flores said.
Mexican President Vicente Fox said the storm caused about 20 billion pesos (US$1.9 billion) in damage, and he vowed to rebuild affected communities.
"Fortunately, the storm has passed, and now we can get to work," Fox said Oct. 9.
Deaths were also reported in Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica.
Jones and other relief workers said the flooding probably has contaminated many of the region's wells, heightening the dangers of cholera, dengue and other epidemics.
And in El Salvador, crop losses were estimated at $10 million, Jones said.
"All of the beans and corn that should have been harvested in November have been lost," he said. ---CNS |