Pakistani bishop calls scenes in quake zone 'beyond description'

Published: 2005-10-21

NEW DELHI, India (CNS) -- The head of the Catholic Church's relief and rescue operations in Pakistan's earthquake zone said the scenes of devastation were "beyond description." "I was taken back by the extent and magnitude of the devastation," Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, Pakistan, told Catholic News Service Oct. 21 in a telephone interview. "It was pathetic to find almost every building flattened or damaged. The sights of devastation are beyond description. The suffering of the injured and the survivors was very moving," said Bishop Coutts, who as director of Caritas Pakistan had visited the earthquake zone three times in two weeks. After the magnitude 7.6 earthquake hit Kashmir Oct. 8, Bishop Coutts said he stayed in Mansehra to set up Caritas' front-line office to coordinate the relief work with other Catholic aid organizations and volunteers. Mansehra, about 15 miles away from the quake's epicenter, was the only city with communication links. Recounting his encounters with the quake victims, Amir Bukhari, an official with the U.S. bishops' Catholic Relief Services in Pakistan, told CNS that "most of the quake victims seem to be traumatized and emotionally drained."

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