Hurricane Stan - Worst disaster to hit Central America and Mexico since 1998

More than a third of the victims are children, says UNICEF

Panama City/Geneva, 11 October - UNICEF is rushing emergency relief supplies to communities in Central America and Mexico devastated by Hurricane Stan last week, estimating that well over a third of the victims are children.

The torrential rains, flooding and mudslides caused by the storm left hundreds and possibly thousands of people dead, and close to half a million people homeless, from southern Mexico to El Salvador, in what experts described as the worst disaster to hit the region since Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

“We don't have exact figures yet, but the demographics of the affected areas suggest that more than a third of the victims of this tragedy are children, who are always the most vulnerable in floods and mudslides, especially in poor communities,” said Nils Kastberg, Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean. In many indigenous villages hit by the disaster, children and adolescents make up close to 50% the population.

“Like the terrible earthquake that struck Pakistan on Saturday, this tragedy also has a child's face and we are calling on donor governments, companies and individuals to help UNICEF respond to both emergencies,” he added.

As part of initial UN emergency appeals and in coordination with the governments involved, UNICEF is seeking close to $6 million for the humanitarian effort in Guatemala and El Salvador and has already diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars from its regular development programmes in the affected countries to help governments and NGOs respond to the crisis. UNICEF staff are supporting assessment missions to gauge the needs of children and families in disaster-struck communities.

In Guatemala, where the official death toll stands at 652 and hundreds more are reported missing, it is estimated that 130,000 people in 420 communities have been affected. Some 280 temporary shelters are housing 90,000 people. UNICEF immediately redirected $350,000 from its regular country programme for relief items and is requesting $3.6 million as part of the UN appeal issued yesterday. The assistance will address urgent needs for safe water and sanitation; monitoring nutritional status of women and children; distribution of milk to severely malnourished children; provision of basic health services, educational and recreational supplies, as well as ensuring protection for children in shelters.

In El Salvador, where volcanic eruptions last week added another tragic dimension to the emergency, more than 65,000 people have been displaced and some 400 shelters established. As part of its initial response and despite the partial flooding of its own premises, UNICEF delivered 2,000 family hygiene kits to meet the immediate needs of 10,000 people; 50,000 packages of oral rehydration salts to prevent deaths from diarrhoea; personal hygiene items and water purification tablets, as well as 2,000 kits with recreation and school supplies for children in shelters. In addition to relief supplies, UNICEF is seeking an additional $2.2 million to provide further relief supplies and support for children in the shelters and to families as they return to their homes.

A contribution from the US Fund for UNICEF made it possible to quickly send relief supplies to the affected countries from UNICEF's regional hub in Panama. UNICEF National Committees in Spain and other industrialized countries are also calling on individuals and corporations to donate funds to meet urgent needs in Central America and South Asia alike.

In Costa Rica, where some 5,000 people were displaced and 700 are in temporary shelters, UNICEF and a range of partners mobilized to provide fuel for helicopters to speed aid to hard-to-reach communities, food, water purification tablets and psychosocial support for children in shelters. In Nicaragua and Honduras, where the impact of the storm was less severe, UNICEF offices are closely monitoring the situation and providing assistance in the framework of their ongoing co-operation with governments and civil society.

Of longer-term concern to UNICEF is the impact of this disaster on education throughout the region. Close to 1,000 schools were reported destroyed or damaged in the affected countries, half of them in Mexico alone. In Mexico, UNICEF's initial response has been to send 6,000 school kits worth approximately $150,000 for distribution to affected schools in the State of Chiapas, where it has ongoing programmes. Recreation kits are being prepared to send to children in shelters. UNICEF is working with national and local education authorities across the region to make sure that children can complete the school year – in schools, shelters or other temporary facilities.

“With the rains likely to continue through December in this second-worst hurricane season in history, we are rushing to provide an immediate response but also to be ready to protect children if new disasters follow,” said UNICEF's Regional Director. - reliefweb.int

click here to see how many aftershocks were recorded...it was a lot

In NWFP, 1,760 people had been killed and 1,797 injured, he said, while 11 had died and 83 were injured in Punjab. In the Northern Areas bordering China and Kashmir a further two people were killed and two injured, the interior minister said.

The interior minister said that 114 army personnel had lost their lives in Kashmir, while more than 200 had received injuries. At least 500 school children were killed in Muzaffarabad when the roofs of their classrooms collapsed.

The earthquake hit five districts in NWFP. "The death toll has reached 2,000 in the NWFP," Inspector General of Police Riffat Pasha told Daily Times from Mansehra, the most devastated district in the province. By Saturday evening, the death toll was over 1,000 and NWFP Minister Sirajul Haq feared that it could reach 7,500 as "thousands of bodies are still under the debris".

Pasha said that the rehabilitation of the affected people will take months. "The infrastructure has been badly damaged and the overall rehabilitation will need massive financial help," he said.

Balakot, the tehsil headquarters of district Mansehra, has been completely razed to the ground and thousands of people are still buried under the debris.

Panic-stricken people and their families in Hazara have taken refuge in parks and open fields away from their homes. Torrential rain and hailstorm added to the miseries of the affected people.

In the Battagram district, wounded people were getting little medical treatment, since the only hospital had collapsed, a police official said.

Haq said that more than 25,000 tents were needed. "We have so far arranged 3,000 tents and the lack of tents is a great worry for us," he told Daily Times.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani launched an appeal for international assistance to help the affected people in the province.

The Mansehra District Headquarters Hospital was packed with people injured from the quake, many of whom were put in tents.

In Garhi Habibullah, 200 bodies including 60 girl students of the Government Higher Secondary School have been recovered from the wreckage.

Agencies add: Among the countless tragic sights, perhaps the most pitiful was that of hundreds of parents using picks, shovels and their bare hands in a desperate attempt to reach 850 children trapped in the rubble of two schools in NWFP. The frightened voices of trapped children and the anguished wails of parents accompanied the frantic work in the Balakot valley.

"Save me, call my mother," came the faint voice of a boy from the rubble of a government school in which residents said about 200 children were trapped.

More than 30,000 people, many of them students, died in Kashmir, said Tariq Farooq, communications minister for the region. "I have been informed by my department that more than 30,000 people have died in Kashmir," he said. "Out of a population of 2.4 million, more than half is affected," the communications minister said, apparently referring to those displaced, injured or killed. He said that 6,000 to 7,000 people were estimated to have died in Bagh and adjoining areas. "There are no survivors in villages like Jaglari, Kufalgarh, Harigal and Baniyali in the Bagh district," Farooq said. "People have been devoured by death."

He said that the death toll was likely to rise. "It's a hilly area. They have not yet accessed villages in the mountains and the toll could rise up to 30,000," said Farooq.

Fatalities included 215 army soldiers, with more than 400 injured, mostly in Kashmir.

Authorities in India reported that 689 people had died and more than 900 injured, while Afghanistan reported at least four deaths. "Information is now coming in from far off areas," one official said from the frontier Kupwara town. "We have recovered 258 bodies so far, and 100 are wounded in the Karnah town. - dailytimes.com.pk

In Pictures

Deja vu - 'There is no relief'

10/10/2005 19:26 - (SA) Bagh - More than two days after a devastating earthquake flattened a swathe of northern Pakistan, angry survivors on Monday raged at the authorities for not bringing food and help.

"We are not mourning our dead today, we are mourning our ties with the government," magistrate Raja Mohammad Irshad said in Pakistani Kashmir's remote town of Bagh, which suffered serious damage. "We are asking whether they think we are human beings, or animals, or non-living things," he said. "We have asked the authorities in Islamabad to send (the police) force with food trucks to prevent any rioting or violence by the survivors."

The huge international rescue effort that has swept into Pakistan has been severely hampered by treacherous mountain terrain and huge quake-triggered landslides that have wiped out most roads, though some reopened on Monday.

Bodies buried under piles of debris

Especially in devastated Pakistani Kashmir, most relief teams have to be ferried in by helicopter but Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf has spoken of a lack of heavy transport choppers and appealed to the international community for help.

In Bagh, bulldozers belonging to local firms were seen working at several places removing boulders that had blocked traffic but there was no sign of promised aid. Bodies were buried under piles of debris where houses once stood, while residents said more than 160 girls and boys were trapped in a collapsed school.

"General Musharraf is making fools of us. There is no relief, no rescue teams, nothing," said another official.

In devastated Balakot, 75km away, there was also bitterness. "We survived the earthquake but now we realise we will die of hunger and cold," said Mohammad Zaheer, a survivor in the shattered northwestern town. Zaheer complained the collapse of one building in the capital Islamabad, where more than 20 were killed and dozens trapped, had attracted a visit from Musharraf.

People sleeping in the open

"We don't want helicopters to hover around. All we want is blankets and water," said Amjad Anwar, an elderly resident.

In affected areas people have been sleeping in the open, either because their homes have been flattened or because they are scared of aftershocks. The government and Pakistan's military, which is playing a major role in rescue operations, say they're doing all they can to help. French and Spanish teams were due to set up field hospitals in quake-hit towns and teams from many were also involved in the aid effort. - news24.com

CAN PAKISTANS EARTHQUAKE LEAD TO PEACE?

Days after a powerful earthquake rocks the Pakistan-controlled region of Kashmir killing tens of thousands, offers of aid from India raise hopes the tragedy could lead to a tenuous peace deal between the longtime rivals (al-Jazeera). Former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan William Milam says Pakistan is willing to move into a peace process; our Background Q&A looks at the countries’ relationship before and after the earthquake; the New York Times and Germany’s Der Spiegel ask whether the earthquake can unite India and Pakistan; and PBS’ NewsHour offers a timeline of the India-Pakistan conflict. Meanwhile, reports indicate foreign aid has been slow to reach earthquake victims because of low donor support (Washington Post) and the region’s destroyed infrastructure (Christian Science Monitor).

from Council on Foreign Relations front page dated 13th Oct 2005.

Was the earthquake intended to push India & Pakistans Juntas closer together?

Strong earthquake jolts Indonesia's Aceh

JAKARTA, Oct. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter Scale rocked the Indonesia's province of Aceh Tuesday evening, causing panic but no casualties reported, the meteorology agency said Wednesday morning.

The quake struck at around 10:05 p.m. local time and was centered at 4.7 north latitude and 95.2 east longitude, about 33 kilometers below the sea floor and 90 kilometers southwest of Banda Aceh, the capital of the province, official of the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency named only Wijayanto told Xinhua.

He said that the quake caused no casualties or damage, but create panic among residents because of fear of possible tsunami.

An 8.7 on the Richer Scale earthquake hit the west coast of Aceh province on Sumatra island on December 26 last year and triggered tsunami that claimed over 220,000 lives in Aceh province.Enditem - xinhua net

Brazil declares disaster areas in Amazon

Worst drought it decades drying key rivers

Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Posted: 0017 GMT (0817 HKT) SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Four Brazilian cities in the Amazon jungle state of Amazonas have been declared disaster areas as the worst drought in 60 years dries up rivers that thousands of families depend on to receive food and medicine, authorities said Monday. By declaring Manaquiri, Atalaia do Norte, Anori and Caapiranga disaster areas, the state government will be able to receive federal aid.

Officials are mainly concerned with the dwindling supplies of medicine in these cities, where more than 42,000 people live, Roberto Rocha of the Amazonas state Civil Defense Department said by phone.

In Manaquiri, the hardest hit of the four cities, small rivers have all but disappeared, cutting off some 2,000 families from regular supplies of medicine and food, Rocha said.

With the rivers drying up, drinking water has also become scarce, said fire department official Col. Mario Belota, a coordinator of the state's relief efforts.

He said workers have been sent to dig wells in Manaquiri, about 1,645 miles (2,650 kilometers) northwest of Sao Paulo.

"The little water that exists in the rivers is polluted," he added.

Belota also fears a yellow fever epidemic in the region because vaccines are not reaching the region on a regular basis.

Another 17 cities and towns declared a state of alert and the federal government may be asked to provide help by furnishing boats and helicopters, Belota said.

Many cities in the vast Amazon region have little or no road access and rely on rivers for transportation. But a shortage of rain during several months caused the level of the Amazon River to drop to 51.8 feet (15.8 meters) on Monday, far below the average low of 58.1 feet (17.6 meters), said the Brazilian government's Geological Service.

In Tabatinga, near the Colombian border, the Solimoes River, a major Amazon tributary, has dropped to 5 feet (1.5 meters), the lowest ever recorded, the Geological Service's Jayme Azevedo da Silva said.

The level of the Amazon rises and falls regularly, but this year the dry season has been more severe than usual. The fires that farmers and ranchers use to clear the forest have helped raise the temperature in the western Amazon, da Silva said, helping to quickly evaporate the little rain that fell this year.

Rainfall in July was 1.21 inches (30.8 millimeters), 65 percent less than the average of 3.44 inches (87.5 millimeters). In June and August rainfall was about two-thirds the normal amount.

Water levels are expected to rise in early November at the start of the rainy season. - CNN

Aid experts debunk post-disaster myths

11 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT LONDON (AlertNet) - In the aftermath of a sudden disaster, aid workers say the media often perpetuates certain myths and misconceptions about survivors and the best way to help them. Here are some of the myths that seasoned relief agencies want to debunk.

MYTH: Disaster-hit people are too dazed and shocked to take responsibility for helping themselves and others.

Reporters and photographers often portray survivors of a sudden disaster as helpless victims, unable to save themselves or each other.

But according to the 2004 World Disasters Report, published by the International Federation of Red cross and Red Crescent Societies, in-depth reports from sudden disasters ranging from earthquakes to the collapse of New York's twin towers show survivors rushing to save people from under the rubble - with their bare hands if necessary.

Adeel Jafferi, media officer for Islamic Relief, described such proactivity in the immediate aftermath of Pakistan's earthquake in October 2005:

"Pakistan has never suffered an earthquake of this magnitude," he told AlertNet in a telephone interview.

"On the day it happened, ordinary people were rushing to aid victims, despite the shock they felt themselves. I saw people on the street who were completely out of their minds with fear, and yet when they saw the need to help people and heard the screams from under buildings, they ran immediately and started helping.''

MYTH: The best international response is to send in rescue teams immediately.

Not necessarily. Some experts say local teams are better placed to perform emergency relief operations in the first few hours after a disaster.

Ibrahim Oxman, the director of the policy and relations division at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, says: "The knowledge and resilience of people at risk contributes far more to reducing the toll of disasters than many of us in the developed world may expect."

During Iran's 2003 Bam earthquake, which destroyed 85 per cent of the city, local Iranian Red Crescent rescue teams were deployed within minutes, despite losing four team members and their headquarters in the earthquake. They saved 157 lives with just 10 dogs.

In contrast, international search and rescue teams from 27 countries took up to two days to arrive. Although they were armed with sniffer dogs and remote sensing equipment, they saved just 22 lives.

Aid agencies are usually under huge pressure to be seen to respond quickly. But there can be serious pitfalls associated with rushing in too fast.

Donna Eberwine, the editor of Perspectives in Health, says: "A hasty response that is not based on a needs evaluation can contribute to the chaos. It is better to wait until genuine needs have been assessed. The local population almost always covers immediate life-saving needs."

According to the World Disasters Report 2004, it is essential for agencies to carry out in-depth interviews with affected people to find out their needs, even in situations where time is of the essence. If they don't, they run the risk of sending the wrong type of help.

Immediately after the Asian tsunami, for example, surgeons from all over the world poured into Banda Aceh in Indonesia. But they found that few survivors had been injured, and there was little for them to do.

In contrast many aid agencies overlooked women's needs. There was a severe shortage of midwives and basics including sanitary protection, the contraceptive pill and headscarves for Muslim women were not provided.

MYTH: Dead bodies should be buried quickly to avoid disease

The World Health Organisation is one of several agencies trying to end confusion over this particular myth.

Immediately after a disaster local authorities and aid workers sometimes panic and bury people before they have been identified, fearing the decomposing bodies will spread disease.

Arturo Pesigan, head of WHO's Emergency and Humanitarian Action in the Western Pacific, says dead bodies actually pose little risk.

"Survivors, not the dead, are more likely to be the source of disease outbreaks," he says, adding that "identification of the body and the normal process of grieving are essential" to help survivors recover from their personal losses.

John Tulloch, a coordinator in New Delhi with the South Asia regional delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said immediately after the Pakistan earthquake:

"It's a disaster myth that dead bodies spread disease. Most bugs die within hours of the host, and it was one of the big tsunami myths. We saw especially in Aceh (in Indonesia) mass burials which caused enormous problems. It's dreadfully traumatic for relatives because their bodies end up being dug up again."

The Pan American Health Organization also says mass burials should be avoided at all costs. It calls them "a violation of the human rights of the surviving family members".

MYTH: Survivors have lost everything except the clothes they stand up in. The best response is to give them second-hand clothes.

After the Asian tsunami, Indians sent a mountain of clothing to survivors in southern India. But the fisher families, for whom the clothes were intended, refused to accept them. Although they are usually depicted as the poorest of the poor, the 2005 World Disasters Report says they are a relatively prosperous and proud community. Even in such dire circumstances, they would not accept second-hand clothes.

The unwanted clothes were dumped on roadsides, and municipal workers had to be diverted from the relief effort to gather them up. They also proved a hazard to local livestock, which tried to eat them.

And food was sent from overseas. But the shipments included wheat and cooked foods from outside the region, neither of which were suitable to local tastes and which became a health hazard when they were dumped.

Ebrahim Mohamed, head of British relief agency Muslim Aid, said after the Pakistan earthquake in October 2005: "We've been getting all sorts of offers of used clothing, and food. We tell people very nicely that getting this there is very costly. Money is the best way of getting this across. And it helps local economies.''

MYTH: The best way Westerners can help children who have been orphaned in a disaster is to adopt them.

In most cases, children's extended families, friends and neighbours will take them in. Unicef reported that almost all the 10,000 children orphaned in the Asian tsunami had been adopted locally within two months. By late February only 60 children were left without foster parents.

MYTH: The best way to help survivors is to put them in temporary settlements.

Aid professionals say this should be avoided as much as possible. Donna Eberwine, the editor of Perspectives in Health, says: ''It should be the last alternative. Funds may be better spent on building materials, tools and other construction-related support in the affected country."

The Asian tsunami showed how most survivors found shelter with host families, rather than being dependent on aid camps. - alertnet.org

Wilma ties Atlantic hurricane season record

MIAMI, Oct 17 (Reuters) - The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season tied a 72-year-old record for busiest ever with the formation of Tropical Storm Wilma on Monday.

Wilma, which was drifting slowly through the northwestern Caribbean Sea, became the 21st tropical storm or hurricane of the season, matching the record set in 1933. Forecasters said it could reach the Gulf of Mexico later in the week and could threaten the storm-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast.

At 8 a.m. (1200 GMT), the center of Wilma was about 205 miles (330 km) southeast of Grand Cayman, the largest island in the Cayman Islands, a British colony south of Cuba, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said. It was moving south at about 5 mph (8 kph) but was expected to move erratically to the southwest or west in the next 24 hours, forecasters said. Storm alerts were in effect for the Cayman Islands.

Maximum sustained winds were 40 mph (64 kph) and forecasters said Wilma could become a hurricane in the next three days. The hurricane center's probable long-range track had Wilma crossing the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and emerging into the gulf late on Friday or early on Saturday.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has been one of the worst ever. In addition to its record-tying 21 storms, the season produced Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to be the most expensive storm in history. At one point a Category 5 hurricane, the strongest on the five-stage hurricane scale, Katrina swamped the levees protecting New Orleans and flooded the famed jazz city, causing insured damage estimated at more than $30 billion and killing more than 1,200 people.

Katrina's damage toll is likely to exceed that of Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than $25 billion in damage when it hit southern Florida in 1992.

The naming of Wilma -- tropical cyclones are given names when sustained winds reach 39 mph (63 kph) -- meant the hurricane center has reached the end of its seasonal list of male and female names. If more tropical storms form this season, forecasters will begin using the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha. - reuters.com

Hurricane Wilma strongest hurricane on record

By Michael Christie Wed Oct 19, 2005 MIAMI (Reuters) - Hurricane Wilma became the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record on Wednesday as it churned towards western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on a track towards Florida, having already killed 10 people in Haiti.

The season's record-tying 21st storm, fuelled by the warm waters of the northwest Caribbean Sea, strengthened alarmingly into a Category 5 hurricane, the top rank on the five-step scale of hurricane intensity.

A U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane measured maximum sustained winds of 175 mph (280 kph), with higher gusts, the U.S. National Hurricane Centre said. The plane also recorded a minimum pressure of 882 millibars, the lowest value ever observed in the Atlantic basin. That meant Wilma was stronger than any storm on record, including Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in late August, and Rita, which hit the Texas-Louisiana coast in September.

Storm warnings were in force for Honduras in Central America, where more than 1,000 people died this month after Hurricane Stan triggered mudslides that buried entire villages. Warnings were also issued for the Yucatan, Cuba and the Cayman Islands.

Wilma has killed up to 10 people who died in mudslides in deforested and impoverished Haiti after several days of heavy rain, civil protection officials said. Wilma was expected to bring rainfall of up to 25 inches (64 cm) to mountainous parts of Cuba, and up to 15 inches (38 cm) to Jamaica and to the Cayman Islands. Honduras and Mexico could expect up to 12 inches (30 cm) of rain, the hurricane centre said. By 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), the hurricane was about 340 miles (550 km) southeast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Wilma was the 21st storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, tying the record set in 1933. It was also the 12th hurricane and tied the record for most hurricanes in a season set in 1969. The season still has six weeks left to run. Hurricane experts say the Atlantic has swung back into a period of heightened storm activity that could last another 20 years. Climatologists also fear global warming could be making the storms more intense.

FLORIDA IN WILMA'S SIGHTS

The storm was moving west-northwest at 8 mph (13 km/h). A turn towards the northwest was expected in the next 24 hours. Once in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, Wilma was expected to make a sharp turn to the northeast, towards Florida.

Wilma was not expected to threaten New Orleans or Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,200 people and caused more than $30 billion in insured damage. It was also expected to miss the oil and gas facilities in the Gulf of Mexico still reeling from Katrina and Rita. But frozen orange juice futures closed at a six-year high on Tuesday amid fears Wilma could ravage Florida groves that had just begun to recover from the hurricanes that destroyed 40 percent of last year's crop.

Florida was hit by four hurricanes last year and has been struck by hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita this year. Cuba's western tobacco-growing province of Pinar del Rio braced for heavy rain. More than 5,000 people were evacuated from eastern Cuba, where two days of rain caused floods and mudslides in the provinces of Guantanamo, Santiago and Granma.

Wilma was expected to weaken before reaching Florida. Nevertheless, officials in the Florida Keys, a vulnerable chain of low-lying islands connected to mainland Florida by a single road, warned residents and tourists to take the storm seriously. Tourists would be ordered to evacuate on Thursday and residents would be told to flee the coming storm on Friday.

"This is our fourth storm but this one is really aggressive," Irene Toner, director of emergency management for the county that encompasses the islands, told local radio. "This one we are taking seriously. The damage is going to be substantial." - reuters.co.uk

Pakistan earthquake death toll rises to 79,000

By Matthew Pennington, Associated Press | October 20, 2005

BALAKOT, Pakistan -- Pakistan's death toll soared to 79,000 yesterday from South Asia's earthquake after a survey of one of the two hardest-hit Pakistani regions -- making it one of the deadliest quakes in modern times.

More aftershocks rattled the region, sending up huge clouds of dust from steep-sided mountain valleys where villages lie in pieces. During a helicopter tour of the ruins, the president, General Pervez Musharraf, promised new, quake-ready houses for the homeless.

In remote mountains, a steady flow of injured villagers continued to seek medical attention. Many had infected wounds, untreated since the Oct. 8 temblor, and had to rely on relatives to carry them for hours on foot to makeshift clinics.

Sixty helicopters were dropping relief supplies, and mule trains were pushing into areas where no helicopters can land.

''Many people out there, we are not going to get to in time," said Rob Holden, the UN disaster coordinator in Pakistan's part of Kashmir. ''Some people who have injuries don't have a chance of survival." - boston.com

Wilma slams Mexico resorts as tourists flee

Fri Oct 21, 2005 By Noel Randewich CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Lashing wind and rain pounded Mexican beach resorts on Friday and thousands of tourists hunkered down in shelters to escape Hurricane Wilma, which was hammering Caribbean resorts on its way to densely populated southern Florida. Heavy rain was coming down in diagonal sheets and howling winds were buckling sturdy trees. Tourists were evacuated from luxury beachfront hotels all along Mexico's "Maya Riviera" coast and the normally calm, turquoise Caribbean seas heaved and Wilma dumped rain on streets patrolled by soldiers ordering people to take cover.

Described by forecasters as extremely dangerous and at its height later on Friday expected to send a 10-foot (3-metre)surge of water over the coast, Wilma killed 10 people in mudslides in Haiti earlier in the week. Cuba evacuated 220,000 people and residents of southern Florida stocked up on drinking water and gas to prepare for Wilma, which hammered the coasts of Mexico and Belize with winds of around 150 mph (240 kph).

Mexican authorities said close to 22,000 tourists and locals residents had been evacuated from low-lying coastal areas. In one gymnasium shelter in Cancun, 1,600 people spent the night on mattresses on the floor. One local entrepreneur sold T-shirts, perhaps prematurely, with the logo: "I survived Hurricane Wilma," at $10 each. About 100 bored-looking foreign tourists stood talking in groups under chandeliers in the cavernous marble lobby of the Hotel Royal Porto Real, near the sea front in Playa del Carmen, another resort just south of Cancun.

"It was meant to be the fortnight holiday of a lifetime," said 28-year-old Simon Hayes, one of four friends on holiday from Britain. "This is not how I envisaged it working out."

Conditions were far tougher for hundreds of migrant construction workers, mostly from the impoverished southern state of Chiapas, who were evacuated from temporary digs in outdoor camps and building sites.

TOURISTS VS MIGRANT WORKERS

In a kindergarten near Playa del Carmen's beachfront, 50 men sat on the concrete floor of a classroom, too cramped for them to lie down, digging into cans of donated tuna fish with their hands. "This sucks," said Juan Cruz Perez, a 21-year-old migrant metal worker from the Gulf state of Tabasco. Still, at one hotel doubling as a shelter because of its distance from the beachfront, Welshman Lee Watkins praised the Mexican emergency services and local people for their help in the evacuation.

"They got us out in plenty of time and as soon as we got here, the food started coming," said Watkins, a sales manager. "Mexican people have come here to cook for us. "It's fantastic."

Wilma became the strongest Atlantic storm on record in terms of barometric pressure on Wednesday. It weakened to a Category 4 hurricane, then picked up again as it headed for Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, where it was expected to hit around noon on Friday. At 2 a.m. EDT (0600 GMT), Wilma was 90 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, and was moving northwest at roughly 6 mph (9 km/h).

Forecasters said it would strike densely populated southern Florida late on Sunday.

The hurricane season has six weeks left and has already spawned three of the most intense storms on record. Hurricane experts say the Atlantic has entered a period of heightened storm activity that could last 20 more years. Wilma was expected to miss Gulf of Mexico oil and gas facilities battered by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August and September, but Florida's orange groves were at risk.

The island of Cozumel, one of the world's best spots for scuba diving, faced a possible direct hit. Authorities in the Keys, connected to mainland Florida by a single road, ordered tourists out and were considering telling the islands' 80,000 residents to evacuate. (Additional reporting by Greg Brosnan in Playa del Carmen and Jane Sutton in Miami) - Reuters