Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 3, 1991 TAG: 9102030055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN LENGTH: Medium
Hundreds of people were believed trapped in remote mountain villages where frail straw-and-mud huts were flattened by the powerful quake, which rumbled across Afghanistan and Pakistan before dawn Friday.
At least 300 homes in the village of Arandu in the foothills of the Himalayas were destroyed by the temblor, said Abdul Sattar Edhi, who operates a Karachi-based emergency relief organization.
Snow, rockslides and avalanches made some of the narrow and treacherous roads into the region impassable, officials said.
"We don't know how many people are dead or injured. We've sent warm clothes, blankets and medicine, but the problem is access," Edhi said.
Officials in Pakistan said the number of dead and injured was still unclear because the worst-hit areas were in remote and rugged mountainous regions of the Northwest Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
The official death toll stood at 164, although government officials said the number was at least 300 and would likely rise.
About 2,000 houses collapsed in the quake that registered 6.8 on the Richter scale, authorities said.
"I was sleeping when I woke to people screaming. Women and children were begging for help," said Haji Jehanzeb, whose village of Sultan was violently shaken by the quake centered more than 300 miles away, in the Hindu Kush mountains of Afghanistan.
A colony of mud homes, damp from rain and snow, collapsed less than 100 yards from Jehanzeb's sturdier cement-block home.
"We dug 16 people out. Two were dead, a small child and an old woman," Jehanzeb told journalists who visited his village. "Then there was a loud bang and the electricity was gone."
The quake triggered landslides that rumbled down onto entire villages, officials said. Some were entirely wiped out, state TV said.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif toured some of the quake-stricken areas by military helicopter Saturday and promised compensation and emergency assistance.
In most of the hardest-hit villages, there are no medical facilities and what does exist is antiquated and inadequate. Officials said the closest hospital was at least 50 miles away in Chitral.
In Afghanistan, state-run Kabul radio made no mention of damage or casualties. The radio reported Friday night that the quake had killed five people, destroyed dozens of homes and damaged some government buildings.
The radio said Afghan President Najibullah sent condolences to Pakistani President Ghulam Ishaq Khan.
Officials said the death toll in Friday's quake was high because sleeping residents were trapped in their fragile sun-baked adobe huts when the temblor struck.
by CNB