By Mo Ramsey
Afghanistan Engineer District
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A team of specialists from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Afghanistan Engineer District (AED) has begun to gauge engineering needs throughout the northern region of Pakistan affected by a 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
The AED team joined coalition forces in humanitarian relief efforts as the area continues to suffer additional aftershocks -- more than 700 so far -- since the major quake of Oct. 8. The group is part of the Disaster Assistance Center -- Pakistan engineer cell.
Aerial Surveys
Weather has played a critical role since the AED engineers" arrival on the scene.
"There were no reconnaissance missions (October 16). It rained all night and visibility was too low to fly," said Kurt Monger, describing the team's third day on the ground.
Monger, a cost engineer from Alaska whose specialty is structural assessment, and Maryam Khan, a civil engineer from Baltimore with geotechnical proficiency, have conducted several aerial recons of the Muzaffarabad region and toward Chakothi. To assess the damage, they've been flying aboard DAC-P helicopters during humanitarian supply and casualty evacuation runs. Other team members, Master Sgt. Eric Johnson and team leader Larry Ryan, have followed suit. The primary focus of both groups is evaluating the roads and bridges that lead to the areas that are in most need urgent disaster relief.
Flying in a UH-60 Blackhawk, about 85 kilometers through the Muree Hills to Muzaffarabad, Khan and Monger observed traffic flowing normally to and from the city along the primary roadway. There the city's stadium has become a major collection point for relief efforts. Landslides had devoured the smaller secondary and tertiary roads that once traversed the steep mountainous slopes, they reported. As they approached Muzaffarabad, the team detected several minor shifts of earth along the main route.
Southeast of Muzaffarabad, they spotted a massive mountain collapse. It blocked a significant portion of a smaller valley and created a natural earthen dam. Rocks and dirt from the landslide piled up to create what they described as "massive dunes." The team noted houses "upstream" in the path of potential floods.
On a Chinook flight towards Chakothi, about 11 kilometers from the Indian border, Monger and Khan surveyed the valley's one main road, which runs about 40 kilometers along the valley floor. It was decimated by numerous landslides, damaged bridges and culverts. Boulders, rocks, dirt and uprooted trees dotted the entire path.
"The route has sustained significant damage such as landslides, large cracks from shear failure, and in some places the shelf has been completely sheared off by the landslides," said Khan.
According to Monger, 80 to 90 percent of the area's structures had collapsed from the utter force of the earthquake.
"We"d fly over houses with roofs that looked intact until we"d look out of the Chinook from another angle. It was then we realized that the roofs were at ground level. There were no walls. They"d given way and the roof had flattened everything below it," said Khan.
"At one stop, we picked up over 50 people who had been injured -- broken limbs, head injuries. It's a bit overwhelming. The smell of death is in the air," she continued.
Both recon teams agreed that while from the air some bridges and roads appear to be intact and continue to be used, there are pockets of "absolute devastation."
Both teams of specialists have just begun to inspect the area from the ground. They expect to continue to perform more aerial and ground surveys. They will also identify routes where reconstruction is urgently needed to bring relief supplies to quake victims as long as the weather cooperates. In addition to roads, the teams have begun to physically visit hospitals and schools to make structural assessments.
Enormity of the situation
According to the World Health Organization, 26 hospitals, to include three which specialize in tuberculosis, have been destroyed or are too dangerous to keep open. Most of the 600 health clinics in the affected areas are thought to have also been destroyed or severely damaged. In the meantime, field hospitals are attempting to treat the seriously injured. More field hospitals are needed, said the WHO.
In a press conference Saturday, Pakistan's Chief Relief Commissioner Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan stated that 19 field hospitals are working 24-7 to treat the injured. He said the death toll had risen to more than 53,000 and the number of injured had climbed to more than 75,000.
Many relief officials say it's a race against time. Snow has already begun to fall in the region and temperatures are steadily dipping as winter approaches.
"We are facing an enormous humanitarian catastrophe and with winter just around the corner, a second humanitarian disaster looms for the 4 million people without a roof over their heads and the 70,000 injured people needing medical attention. For all humanitarian organizations, it is a race against the clock," said Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid in an Oct. 24 European Union press release.
Maj. Michael Brooks, an engineer action officer with the Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan, and Gilbert Dent, a project manager from Baltimore where he serves as its emergency management chief, continue to painstakingly coordinate assessment missions for the AED teams. They're working with the other DAC-P engineers, the U.S. Agency for International Development Disaster Assistance Response Team and United Nations groups.
Reachback Support
The AED team has also harnessed the experience of the more than 35,000 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers geologists, engineers, hydrologists and other professionals stationed throughout the United States and around the world. The team requested the Corps" Engineering Intelligence and Infrastructure Reach-back Center to provide it with information and advice regarding slope stability, structural assessment of damaged concrete, environmental clearances as well as requirements for temporary housing. The DAC-P engineer cell will use the information to make further recommendations for reconstruction projects and to maximize coordination.
According to the United States Geological Survey, the frequent earthquakes in northern Pakistan are the result of the Indian subcontinent moving northward thus colliding with the Eurasian continent.
| Date Taken: | 10.26.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 10.26.2005 13:24 |
| Story ID: | 3481 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 156 |
| Downloads: | 75 |
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