November 8, 2005
by Kevin Caruso
The devastating 7.6-magnitude Pakistan earthquake struck one month ago today.
And a “race against time” has been occurring from day one.
Over 3 million people are homeless because of the quake, and some 200,000 of the homeless are in high mountainous regions, making them vulnerable to exposure in the winter cold.
And predictions for an “unusually harsh winter” are being made by forecasters, making the urgency of reaching each of these people even more pressing.
"We have to face what is happening now in Kashmir," said Jan Egeland, U.N. Emergency Relief coordinator. "People will freeze to death if they don't get assistance in weeks."
"So, this is the whole nature of the race against the clock that we have been talking about for some time. We have two, three, four weeks more before the whole area is covered by deep snow and the whole area is above the snow line of 2,000 meters (6,000 feet)."
