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Friday, October 21, 2005
Need for quake aid bigger than tsunami
The United Nations on Thursday declared the southern Asian earthquake a 'logistical nightmare' that has surpassed the needs of last December's tsunami.
Speaking at a news conference in Geneva, U.N. emergency relief chief Jan Egeland said NATO had begun flying in 900 tons of aid, but said it wasn't nearly enough.
'We have never had this kind of logistical nightmare ever,' Egeland said. 'We thought the tsunami was the worst we could get. This is worse.'
The Dec. 26 tsunami killed more than 200,000 people around the Indian Ocean.
Pakistan says the official death toll of the Oct. 8 quake is 47,000 but various aid officials claim it is closer to 80,000.
As winter approaches in the Himalayan region, some three million people who survived have no shelter. U.N. officials said 10,000 tents will be flown to Pakistan over the next few weeks although they said there may not be enough winterized tents in the world to fill the need, the BBC reported.
Earlier, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said the international community had only given firm commitments to fund 12 percent -- or $37 million -- of the U.N.'s appeal.
Source: Science Daily (press release) - USA
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