Hundreds Dead in Powerful Asian Earthquake

[Theben]

Holy ****, 20,000!?!? What happened to 'hundreds'? This is terrible...

[:) Smiley]

Why is it that almost all disaster counts are off by one or two orders of magnitude when first predicted?

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by DaShi


No offense, but to punish someone more for defending themselves is the ruling of a tyrant.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Quake-Pakistan-India.html

Wow! It's good to see that even bitter rivals can look past their differences in a time of tragedy. Definitely a step in the right direction.

It seems the Indian government succeeded in attaining its objectives - said objectives being international diplomaitc brownie points , and goodwill all around ( specially in PoK ) . I must admit , this is brilliant , and good work in and of itself .

[SlowwHand]

Count goes up as people are found.
Estimates are all that can be gone by at any given point,even when all the debris is cleared.
Does anyone KNOW how many died in the twin towers destruction? No, and never will.

BTW, the latest estimate on this particular tragedy is now 35,000.

[Spiffor]

Bloody hell

[Spiffor]

Especially when you consider that aid still has much trouble reaching many areas, which means that epidemics and deaths due to cold might actually begin and exceed those due to the quake itself.

[SlowwHand]

Measles, for one. For whatever reason I'm not sure on.

[Saras]

Originally posted by MOBIUS
Lets hope the higher death toll estimates are inaccurate and that it brings the two local superpowers closer together as India is offering Pakistan assistance...

Tragedies
Tragedies bringing enemies closer (very Romeo&Juliet'esque)

[Chemical Ollie]

38 000 and counting

[The Emperor Fabulous]

54000

[GePap]

The areas around the Indian tectonic plate seem to be very active right now, I mean, this is the second 7 or above magnitude quake in a year.

Unfortunatelly, I am not at all surprised at the high numbers- a densely populated zone in which construction codes are either non-existant, lax, or ignored.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
54000

What?

[Sava]

CNN's latest story puts death total at 41,000

[The Emperor Fabulous]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - At least 40,000 people in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir died in last week's earthquake, a Pakistani official said Sunday. That would raise the overall death toll in the disaster to more than 54,000.

The prime minister of Pakistan's part of Kashmir, Sikandar Hayat Khan, estimated the toll in his region could be much higher because relief workers have not yet reached many affected areas, said his spokesman, Abdul Khaliq Wasi.

"The death toll is not less than 40,000," Wasi said.

However, he added that officials in Kashmir had not counted all the bodies, and the 40,000 figure was "a closest estimate."

An additional 13,283 people have been confirmed dead in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, and India has reported 1,350 deaths in the part of divided Kashmir it controls.

Confirmation of a final death toll will be difficult because many bodies are buried beneath the rubble.

"The United Nations is still operating on the government's official numbers," said Andrew MacLeod, Humanitarian Affairs officer with the U.N. Coordination and Assessment Team. "There are regions that still have not been reached, and the death toll is not final."

Khan said earlier that the confirmed casualty toll from the earthquake was 39,422 dead and 65,038 injured.

Deteriorating weather is likely to cause more casualties among the cold and homeless survivors of the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the area touching Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Oct. 8, the military said.

"There are bound to be casualties because of bad weather. How much, I don't know," said Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan, Pakistan's relief commissioner.

On Sunday, torrential downpours halted airborne quake relief efforts in Kashmir, where the Pakistani military said one of its relief helicopters crashed in bad weather, killing all six people aboard.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051016/D8D992784.html

[Kuciwalker]

I honestly don't understand how so many people die in these things. I mean, it's the ground shaking. It's not like big pits open up and swallow people. How do most people die?