Background
With its epicenter in Muzaffarabad, the October, 2005, earthquake struck at 8:45 a.m. on a Saturday -- a school day in Pakistan. As a result, many children were among the 73,331 people killed and 69,392 injured. The temblor destroyed an estimated 16,000 schools and colleges, and wrecked, or severely damaged, about 400,000 homes -- nearly 90 percent of them in rural areas. The quake’s reach stretched across more than 18,000 square miles, an area about the size of the Netherlands and Belgium combined. More than 3 million people were left homeless.
Oxfam America President Raymond C. Offenheiser described the relief operation that kicked into gear as one of the most challenging the agency has ever undertaken.
"This isn't a logistical headache, it's a nightmare scenario," said Offenheiser a month into the operation. "Not only did the earthquake happen in an inaccessible and remote area, it happened just before winter -- when snow cuts off huge areas and temperatures plummet dangerously low. We need to get thousands of heavy tents and blankets into remote areas along roads that were barely passable even before the earthquake -- and we need to do it quickly."
Speed and persistence paid off. Despite early concerns that a harsh winter could bring a second wave of death to homeless people stranded in camps and wrecked villages, spring arrived in the region without those fears being realized. That success was due, in part, to the rapid and thorough mobilization of relief services by international aid groups. By mid-March, Oxfam had helped nearly 930,000 people with assistance that ranged from water and sanitation services to shelter and job opportunities.