Providing Immediate Aid to Earthquake Survivors in Pakistan

Rueters/Amit Gupta. Courtesy of alertnet.org.

Mercy Corps is undertaking an immediate response to the devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake centered in the remote Hindu Kush mountains of northern Pakistan on Friday, October 7. Relief workers are on the ground readying the first shipments of lifesaving medical supplies for distribution. Mercy Corps has assembled mobile medical teams made up of doctors, nurses and surgeons to provide critical trauma care to those in need.

Mercy Corps is committed to reaching remote areas and delivering medical aid, food, tents, blankets and winter clothing where bridges and roads have either been washed away or are impassible. The organization is devising strategies to reach these areas through any means necessary, including by foot and airlift.

“It’s horrific,” says Dr. Arif Noor, a Pakistan-based doctor with Mercy Corps. According to Dr. Noor, many small settlements in the mountain valleys have been completely washed away. International relief groups estimate the death toll up over 40,000. Some people are fleeing their leveled villages carrying the dead and wounded with them. Many others are staying behind, unsure of whether missing family members are dead or alive. People are intensely fearful of aftershocks, staying outside in open areas through the winter nights that bring torrential rains and hailstorms.

Islamabad-based Mercy Corps staff has completed its initial assessment of the earthquake zone. Critical short-term needs include emergency medical care and supplies, food rations and shelter. Staff estimates that 50% of housing in populated areas has been destroyed and 30%-40% is heavily damaged. Major hospitals have been destroyed and ambulances lie overturned in the streets.

Mercy Corps has over 100 staff based in Pakistan, which enabled a critical immediate response to this disaster, allowing the organization to draw on existing emergency supply stores in Islamabad.

Mercy Corps is coordinating relief efforts with the United Nations and other relief organizations that are a part of this critical lifesaving response. “This disaster is beyond the scope of one government, or many governments,” says Dr. Arif Noor. “Now is the time for the world to join hands and come together with this terrible tragedy.”

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