Pakistani archbishop says pre-Christmas aid arrived before big snow

Published: 2006-01-12

LAHORE, Pakistan (CNS) -- A Pakistani archbishop said aid delivered to a devastated earthquake town just before Christmas arrived just in time -- before two feet of snowed blocked access roads. In a Jan. 3 letter to friends and benefactors, Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore said he delivered steel sheets for building shelters, warm clothing and medicine to people in and around Balakot, one of the towns hit worst by the Oct. 8 earthquake. Some 24,000 people, many of them children, had perished under crumbled hotels, schools and markets, and Balakot survivors had requested the steel sheets because they were afraid their tents would collapse under winter snows, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. The archbishop and aid officials delivered the supplies shortly before Christmas, and he described it as a "Santa Claus-like delivery." He said that on New Year's Eve, rain and snow began falling, and within three days two feet of snow had accumulated, blocking roads and making relief work slow and dangerous.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .