Neelum River Blocked by Falling Villages

I was upset to read that 20 people, including 4 Australians, were killed in the Bali bombings of last week. I just can’t get my mind around the idea of 18,000 people dead from yesterday’s earthquake in Pakistan.

According to the Associated Press of Pakistan:

The earthquake that jolted parts of northern Pakistan, ranks fourth amongst the ten, over 7.0 magnitude earthquakes that hit the world in 2005 and is the severest in country’s history.

The worst earthquake that hit the country was on May 30, 1935, which almost destroyed Quetta in south- west of Pakistan, killing over 50,000 people.

He said the earthquake was very shallow and at a depth of around 10 kms and is prone to cause widespread damage in the area.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Earthquake Information Center, the quake originated 95 kms North North East of capital Islamabad at 8:50:38 a.m.

The Indian and Eurasian plates pass through Northern Pakistan.

Islamabad and Peshawar lie in the major damage zone.

According to ABC Online:

“Village after village has been wiped out,” said an official in Muzaffarabad, the main town in Pakistani Kashmir. “The Neelum River has been blocked because whole villages have fallen into the water.”

The scale of the disaster has shocked the international community and brought pledges of aid and expressions of sympathy but the time has already run out for many in the region.

Near the shattered town of Balakot in Northwest Frontier Province, the scene was one of total devastation with many villages lying in ruins.

Landslides blocked the steep mountain roads and powerful aftershocks sowed terror among survivors, dislodging huge boulders from further up the hillsides. Rain, hail and freezing temperatures added to the misery.

The Neelum River has been a point of dispute between India and Pakistan with India completing a 22 km long tunnel earlier this year in violation of the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 and taking water from down stream Pakistan.