Igloos could save lives

From a reader (edited):

140,000 people are stranded above the snowline in the Pakistani Himalayan Mountains without access to shelter and 2.7 million are without shelter. Snow may fall anytime and trap hundreds of thousands who will freeze to death.
Aid workers say that the first significant snow of the winter is [will expose] millions of homeless people to the threat of hunger and hypothermia.

Here is a true Innovative Emergency Shelter for Quake Survivors. It has been time-tested in frigid winters, costs nothing to build, and the recipe can be quickly given to a million or more people at a time.

Igloos of snow cost nothing and would give every family a cozy and relatively warm, sturdy place to live immediately and are practical for extreme conditions.

The igloo floors could be laid from concrete and stone debris and would act to store the tiny inside fire's heat to warm the freezing nights. These Inuit and Eskimo traditional techniques would definitely work well and would risk no one's life from heavy building materials falling due to hasty construction by first-time builders.
I propose that millions of simple lightweight instructional leaflets be printed immediately in native languages with drawings from the websites listed below. The leaflets and other bundles can be airdropped over survivor's camps for access to ancient forgotten tribal techniques of living in frigid snowy climes. Your bilingual workers would need to translate the package of instructions for igloo building technology.

Please look up the following web sites for pictures and descriptions of how to build igloos:

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/cape_dorset/dwell1.html

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/cape_dorset/dwell2.html

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/cape_dorset/inter.html

http://collections.ic.gc.ca/cape_dorset/dwell3.html

Extracts:

"After the key block has been inserted the hut is tightly sealed and a lamp is kindled inside. The heated air, having no exit, begins to melt the face of the snow blocks, which rapidly congreals again on admission of cold air from the outside. Ths each snow block is firmly cemented in place and converted to ice on its inner face. Occupation for a few days then gradually changes the interiors of the blocks, so that the structure is no longer a snow house but a house of ice. The transformation gives it remarkable stability; a man can stand on the summit without causing collapse, and half the house can be destroyed without destroying the other half. Consequently by building a series of intersecting domes and omitting or opening up the common egments, an Eskimo can enlarge a small circular hut capable of housing only 1 or 2 families into a community dwelling of 3, 4 or 5 rooms that will house 15 or 20 people."

"...men would take their snow knife and go to their prepared snow field. Once there, starting from the edge they start cutting snow blocks. The packed snow had hardened from the combination of stomp packing and freezing.

Since smaller helicopters can only carry about 165 lbs. in the thin air of the Himalayas, larger military planes would be needed to drop these supplies. I recommend water cans, water purification tablets, dried foodstuffs, long barbecue lighters and machetes (as snow knives) to cut snow blocks. Waste wooden building materials could be split with the machete also and used to produce heat inside the igloos. Also sheets, woolen and space blankets would be vital as the temperature would be about 33 degrees inside the igloo.

James D. Peck caferush2@yahoo.com
Please respond with e-mail or call me at (1)(978)546-5217 to let me know how the plan worked out if you move forward with it. I will try to be available if you have questions.

Tremors felt at Drosh, Chitral

An earthquake of mild intensity measuring 4.8 on the Richter scale hit Chitral Thursday on Dec 01, 2005. According to preliminary analysis of Meteorological Station Peshawar, the earthquake originated at 1223 hours and its epicentre was about 300 kilometres north of Peshawar in the Hindukush Range. The quake was also felt at Drosh and other adjoining areas. No casualties were reported.


Source: DAWN

Hundreds of Pneumonia Cases Reported in Affected Areas

Health officials in Pakistan have said that hundreds of people, most of them children, had contracted pneumonia in the earthquake-stricken areas of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.A three-member health team has been sent to Darbang and Nariola villages to evaluate the situation and more teams were expected to arrive from Islamabad in a day or two. The health department in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir has urged the federal ministry of health to send reinforcements. Six mobile teams are expected to reach Muzaffarabad by last Wednesday evening.

Pakistan-controlled Kashmir received its first harsh winter weather at the weekend with up to 8 inches of snowfall at high altitudes and up to 1.2 inches (32 mm) of rain in lower areas. Relief operations resumed on Monday after the weather cleared and continued on Tuesday, but the weather conditions remain cold in the area.


Source: AKI

Fresh quake jolts Pakistan

A moderate earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale jolted northwestern Pakistan early yesterday but there were no reports of casualties. With winter starting to set in, the the focus of the relief effort was shifting towards food as Aid officials fear sickness sweeping through a cold and poorly nourished population will cause a second wave of deaths.


Source: Gulf Daily News

Baby becomes first quake survivor to die of cold

The thing we all feared is starting to happen, with the cold of the Himalyan winter hitting the survivors of the quake.

From The New Zealand Herald

Baby becomes first quake survivor to die of cold

A three-month-old baby has become the first Pakistan earthquake survivor to die of the cold as thousands more face the onset of winter without shelter.

Waqar Mukhtar died hours after he was admitted to hospital in Kashmir with pneumonia.

Relief workers are warning that unless more aid reaches the affected area fast, his may be the first in a new wave of deaths from the earthquake.

Waqar was among the hundreds of thousands of earthquake survivors who live in villages on the high mountainsides of Kashmir and neighbouring North-West Frontier Province - mountains where the first snow has just begun to arrive.

He was rushed down the mountainside to hospital in the city of Muzzaffarabad as soon as he fell sick, but it was too late.

In many villages, the survivors are still without adequate shelter, despite desperate pleas from the United Nations and the Pakistani government for more international aid.

Many live under makeshift tents made out of plastic sheeting, or crude shelters they have hammered together from planks and bits of corrugated iron roofing they have salvaged from the ruins of their homes.

Doctors have warned that it is the children who are at gravest risk from the cold without proper shelter.

In many villages, there is only enough room in the tents for the women and youngest children.

Men and boys as young as 14 sleep outside.

Read the full story. Link via Indian Writing.

Kashmir Update by ADEPT: Is this the Beginning of the New Disaster?

(ADEPT's International climbing team is ready awaiting permission from the government to move in)

Quake affected Kashmir experienced the seasons first heavy snowfall since yesterday. The upper reaches of the Kashmir valley, in India, experienced a fresh spell of snowfall, resulting in considerable drop in temperatures. Border areas of Karnah, in Baramulla district, recorded about two and a half feet of snowfall, leading to road block. Gurez, one of the worst affected areas in the earthquake, and Sadhna Top in Kupwara also had six inches of snowfall each. The Baramulla town experienced light snowfall followed by rains, which disrupted normal life. The Sriangar-Leh national highway has been officially closed down for the six winter months. All traffic personnel deployed on the highway have been withdrawn. Official sources warned that anybody still plying their vehicles on the highway will be doing at their own risk. There is risk of landslies due to the rains. Helicopters have been grounded.

With no written titles to property in the area, and with considerable risk of property being stolen, villagers prefer to stay put and brave the winter exposure. Many temporary shelters in the area are enmarshed in the mud created by rain. Sanitary conditions are worse than ever.

The first deaths of an infant and an old man, due to exposure, were reported yesterday from Pakistan. While relief oganisations are building shelters as fast as they can, with heavy rains and a fresh blanket of snow, it isn’t fast enough for those who have been living rough since the Oct. 8 earthquake. A large number of tents and tin sheets purchased and stockpiled for the purpose of providing shelter, have yet to be delivered, with weather conditions worsening every day. ADEPT's partner, the Catholic Relief Services, have completed about 28% of planned distribution of tin sheets. Further bad weather ahead will leave villagers in the isolated mountains without food, shelter or other aid. Those already suffering from respiratory infection are at risk for Pneumonia. Children and the elderly risk hypothermia.

Paper work sucks

Once again I managed to stay M.I.A. for sometime.

Getting involved in the NGO world is not always what one might perceive it to be. Unfortunately, there is a lot of catching up to do before getting thrown into the field. It's funny that I always thought that field work was not something I was meant to ever do. Some part of me still agrees with that, but the majority of me is very content.

Officially, I have only made a couple trips up north -- one with a donor and one to do distribution monitoring in Bagh.

Since many of you may still not know what exactly it is that I do, I am a project manager for two earthquake related projects, being implemented in Bagh, Mansehra and Battagram.

One project, with CARE International, is just distribution of emergency relief provisions to some 2000 identified households in Battagram, Mansehra and Bagh. This is just giving them preassembled CARE packages of basic household needs (including tents) to get people on their feet with rebuilding their lives.

The other, the bigger one, is a housing project for people in the same districts (in NWFP and AJK). We have yet to commence that as the project was recently approved. This one is with Department for International Development.

The last couple of weeks have been spent mainly catching up with whats going on, getting information and being buried in tons of paperwork and contractual agreements, etc.

This is definately a great start to a wonderful and very rewarding career. I hope that things materialize faster for the needy than they are right now because, well...we don't want there to be no one left to save by snowfall...that would be very upsetting and careless.

I will be rather infrequent about my posts for some time, at least until I get my shit together because work between the office and the field keeps me away from luxury and citizen reporting very often.

Ciao
Cross-posted on Shake the Quake