After the floods, it is the earth that shakes

Just when Pakistan is braving the last of the floods in the southern tip of Pakistan, that earlier left some 20 million homeless and destroyed some two million houses since the floods started in July 2010, the earth moved with a massive jolt on Friday night. Fortunately there have been no reports of any damage so far.

I was just about to go to sleep when my bed shook noticeably and the ceiling fan started swaying. I yelled at my wife to run outside immediately. But we stopped at the main door as it was raining very heavily outside. So we keep standing in the main door for sometime before getting in the house. I switched on the TV and there news of the quake from the entire north to down south as far as the city of Multan.

The epicenter of the quake was said to be 115 km northwest of Chitral (Pakistan) in the mountain range of Hindukush in Afghanistan at the depth of some 199 kilometres, making it a deep earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The jolt that continued for some 15 seconds measured 6.3 at the Richter scale.

It may be added here that on October 8, 2005, a powerful 7.6-magnitude earthquake struck Pakistan with its epicenter located approximately 336 kilometers (208 miles) southeast of Friday's earthquake. The powerful quake had left some 87,351 people killed and injured another 71,000. There were massive infrastructure damages, especially in the northern parts of Pakistan and Kashmir. Pakistan has yet not been able to bring the life to normalcy in the quake hit areas so far.

The recent floods have already done a major damage to life, property and the communication infrastructure that would require a massive relief effort to rebuild. Any damages by the quake last night would have compounded the sufferings manifold – thank God none have been reported so far. We pray earnestly for no more natural calamities.