Workers struggle to get aid to Pakistani victims of earthquake

Published: 2005-10-19

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan (CNS) -- Relief workers, local residents and international troops worked to get aid to earthquake victims stranded for more than 10 days while aftershocks as strong as magnitude 5.8 rocked the area, causing more mudslides and more blocked roads. Regional officials said Oct. 19 the death toll in the Oct. 8 quake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan had climbed to more than 79,000, with more than 77,000 of those deaths in Pakistan. Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' international relief and development agency, was working closely with Caritas Pakistan, the church's charitable agency. Shannon Oliver, a CRS camp manager, said that in the town of Balakot there was so much structural damage "that it is safe to say the town has no buildings left standing. Even more devastating is the smell of death that hangs heavily in the air," Oliver said in a statement on the CRS Web site. "Psychologically, when thinking about these human beings who have yet to be found or buried by their family, it's traumatizing."

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