The Pulse of Humanitarian Assistance

7. The 2005 Pakistan Earthquake

7 The 2005 Pakistan Earthquake Nadeem Ahmed and Andrew MacLeod Pakistan, October 8, 2005—early morning. School bells ring, children crowd into rural classrooms in mountaintop hamlets. They hope the school day will be fun and the homework short. Impoverished towns and villages kick into daily life. They anticipate business in the bazaar, or bargains in the shops. Indian and Pakistani soldiers stare down their barrels to eye each other across the Line of Control. They hope the peace process will continue. ‘‘Situation normal’’ was the right phrase to describe that day. Just after school started that Saturday morning, a massive earthquake struck, 7.6 on the Richter scale, shaking the earth for approximately a minute, destroying four hundred thousand homes, damaging two hundred thousand others. Five hundred medical facilities, most government buildings, many roads, bridges, electricity supplies, water services, sanitation facilities, all things wiped out in that minute. Three and a half million people became homeless ; thirty thousand square kilometers were affected. Thirty-five thousand school children were killed. An equal number of adults in towns also died. Seventy-three thousand gone, as many severely injured. In terms of scale, a greater territory was affected than that affected by the Asian tsunami. There were more injuries, although less deaths. The terrain, rather than flat and coastal, was mountainous and rugged. The weather, rather than temperate and tropical, was Himalayan, threatening and lethal. The freezing temperature of the mountainous winter was less than two months away. Predictions of massive second waves of death caused by infection , starvation, and cold were realistic and frightening. Disease could be expected, calamity was thought certain. While billions of dollars were donated to support the tsunami victims, funds given for Pakistan earthquake relief were slow THE 2005 PAKISTAN EARTHQUAKE 159 and scarce. The international relief community was partway through a process of self-examination following poor coordination and massive duplication of effort seen after the tsunami. The Humanitarian Response Review (HRR) had come up with some recommendations, but they were yet to be endorsed let alone implemented. Faced with a massive catastrophe without precedent in modern times, many times larger in impact than Hurricane Katrina, the Pakistan government, nonetheless, had to react. Expectations were bleak and the task was huge, yet less than six months later the government of Pakistan, with the support of the Pakistani people , international agencies and organizations, and foreign volunteers , was able to declare relief operations over. The second wave of deaths had been avoided; deaths from the cold were less than those recorded for the previous year. No one starved to death, no disease breakouts occurred. Just under a million tents were distributed, nearly four hundred thousand emergency shelters were built, water supplies were rebuilt, and the closed areas of Kashmir were opened to foreign assistance. In less than six months the Pakistan government, with the help of the international community, was able to say, ‘‘Job well done, now let’s look to rebuild.’’ This chapter reviews the bases for success, considers some of the realistic lessons learned, identifies areas for improvement, and suggests positive examples for future emergencies. One was paramount: cooperation is king. If one concentrates on the overall success of the operation, one can miss the many opportunities for improvement and progress that come from looking into the details and the process. Yet if one concentrates on small details, one may forget the success by becoming bogged down in smallscale issues regarding process. Lessons learned must be based not only on what went wrong and why they went wrong; they must also be based on what went right and why. Search and Rescue with Emergency Response In any natural disaster of this size, in any country in the world, a stable government turns to its military for immediate response. 160 NADEEM AHMED AND ANDREW MacLEOD Given that the earthquake struck and affected both Pakistan-controlled and Indian-controlled Kashmir, including across the Line of Control (still an internationally recognized cease-fire line between two nuclear powers technically at war), it was natural that both the Indian and Pakistani military were mobilized. Although it took some days to reestablish full command and control mechanisms to replace senior, middle, and junior level commanders who died in the earthquake, the Pakistan Army was able to respond in the initial days depending on the strength and ability of remaining personnel. The forces were activated for search and rescue...