Background
On January 26, at approximately 8:46 AM local time, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale occurred in western India. The United States Geological Society (USGS) places the epicenter of the earthquake 43 miles northeast of Bhuj in Gujarat State. Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh were also impacted.
The earthquake was the most powerful to strike India since August 15, 1950, when an 8.5-magnitude earthquake killed 1,538 people in northeastern Assam state.
Numbers Affected
Official Government of India (GOI) figures place the death toll at 7,181 and the number of injured at 29,685. GOI sources estimate that the total death count may reach 100,000.
Preliminary GOI assessments indicate that 3.5 million people have been affected.
The GOI has not released an estimate of internally displaced persons (IDPs). However, media reports indicate that more than 500,000 people are displaced. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reported that approximately 200,000 residents are homeless.
In Pakistan, an additional 12 people are reported dead and more than 100 injured in the towns of Hydrabad and Badin-located in the southern province of Sindh.
Current Situation
United States Agency for International Development’s Disaster Assistance Response Team (USAID/DART) assessments indicate that that the remote towns of Rajkot, Jamnagar, Anjar, Bachchao, and Rapar are more heavily impacted than the cities of Ahmedabad and Bhuj
GOI officials from the Ministry of Water Resources indicate that there has been no catastrophic damage to any of the 536 large dams in Gujarat State.
Although search and rescue (SAR) is ongoing, efforts have shifted to emergency relief response.
Both the GOI and UNOCHA state that trauma care, shelter, food, blankets, and warm clothing are current priorities.
USAID/DART has not been able to confirm, either directly or through its partners, local press reports regarding the looting of relief supplies.
Migration
According to USAID/DART assessments, affected populations continue to move from the rural areas toward the cities, primarily Ahmedabad. In order to facilitate this effort, 150 buses are being used to transport those migrating from destroyed villages, however many people are still traveling on foot.
Food Security
Local food assistance, coordinated through the GOI, includes 100,000 metric tons (MT) of wheat and 10,000 MT of sugar from the Department of Food and Public Distribution and more than 16.6 MT of food packets from India food corporations. USAID/DART is monitoring local food requirements as rations are consumed and populations continue to migrate. The destruction of mills, food warehouses and irrigation structures, as well as a disruption of harvesting and food production will effect the overall food situation.
Water and Sanitation
The World Health Organization (WHO) identified access to water as the priority health concern. Without access to potable and safe water sources, the threat of disease outbreaks in the affected area will increase.
Logistics and Distribution
The airport in Bhuj is receiving both military and commercial emergency relief flights indicating that logistical constraints have diminished, however, much of the off-loading of relief supplies is being done by hand.
The airport in Ahmedabad is open, but there is little cargo handling equipment available for unloading emergency relief flights. The railway system has been restored in many areas, including Kakuma, located ten miles from Bhuj.
The distribution of relief supplies in Bhuj continues to occur on an ad hoc basiscomplicated by the lack of vehicles and an overextended local processing capacity.
Coordination
The GOI and UNOCHA are coordinating relief operations from Ahmedabad. UNOCHA has initiated plans to move its coordination efforts to the airport at Bhuj, which will become the focal point for the collection and dissemination of assessment information.
Coordination remains a challenge in the provision of relief commodities. While coordination is improving in Ahmedabad, local level coordination remains weak.
The United Nations (UN) will lead the first of several sectoral meetings on February 1 in Ahmedabad.
U.S. Government Assistance
On January 27, the United States Agency for International Development/Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA) announced that it is prepared to provide $5 million in emergency humanitarian assistance.
The Department of Defense (DoD) is preparing two airlifts contain approximately $1.6 million of relief commodities and equipment including 92 large tents, 10,000 blankets, and 10,000 sleeping bags two three-ton rough terrain forklifts, two water tankers, and one 2.5 ton truck.
A second airlift of USAID/OFDA emergency relief supplies will arrive in New Delhi on February 3. The airlift includes 930 rolls of plastic sheeting, two water purification kits, nine 3,000-gallon water tanks, and 830 tents from USAID/OFDA’s stockpile warehouse in Pisa, Italy. The total value of these commodities is $725,650 including transport.
The first airlift of USAID/OFDA-funded commodities, including included plastic sheeting, blankets, water containers, water distribution kits, water purification units, generators, light stands, and electrical cords, has arrived in Bhuj. The total value of these commodities with transport costs is $822,156.
USAID/OFDA provided an initial $100,000 in disaster assistance through USAID/New Delhi to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund for immediate assistance to those affected by the earthquake.
Approximately 600 MT of U.S. Title II emergency food commodities, valued at $230,000, are being distributed in the affected areas by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and CARE.
A ten-member USAID/DART comprised of a team leader and logistics, information, administration, press and communications personnel, as well as a military liaison officer and a technical expert is operating in the affected areas and New Delhi. Two Department of Defense (DOD) logistics personnel from the Defense Attaché Office at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi will complement the USAID/DART.
A USAID/OFDA 24-hour Response Management Team in Washington, D.C. continues to coordinate the U.S. Government response to the disaster.
Since 1998, USAID/OFDA has provided funding in support of the Program for the Enhancement of Emergency Response (PEER)-, a regional training initiative designed to promote, develop and strengthen Search and Rescue (SAR) capabilities in earthquake-prone countries of Asia. This collaborative program, implemented in partnership with the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department has helped to increase earthquake preparedness and response capabilities in India prior to this disaster.
Other Donor and International Organization Assistance
The European Union (EU) provided $2.78 million in emergency assistance. Additional donations have been made by Britain ($4.5 million), Italy ($2.1 million), Australia ($1.5 million), Norway ($1.1 million), Japan ($900,000), Canada ($662,000), Sweden ($523,000), Germany ($475,000), Netherlands ($420,000), Ireland and Belgium ($920,000), Kuwait ($250,000), Greece ($270,000), South Korea ($100,000), and China ($50,000).
The Government of Israel is dispatching a mobile field hospital, including a team of doctors, medical staff, and medical equipment.
The International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) has deployed a 350 bed mobile field hospital to Bhuj. IFRC, in partnership with the Indian Red Cross, is providing 100,000 blankets, 22,000 tarpaulins, 600 large tents, and 2,000 units of blood plasma.
The U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has provided 10,000 survival kits, 5,000 blankets, 1 million chlorine tablets, and 50,000 tarpaulins.
Search and rescue teams from Russia, Switzerland, Britain, Turkey, Germany, France, and Hungary are operating in the affected area.
USG Funding Summary
|
USG Agency |
Implementing Partner (if applicable)
|
Project/Sector |
Location
(if applicable) |
Dollar Amount |
|
USAID/OFDA
|
Prime Minister’s Fund
|
All
|
$100,000
|
|
|
USAID/New Delhi
|
In-kind commodities
|
Bhuj
|
$843,806
|
|
|
Commercial Aviation
|
Airlift
|
Bhuj
|
$704,000
|
|
| USAID/OFDA Total |
$1,647,806
|
|||
|
USAID/FFP
|
CARE
|
Title II Food Assistance
|
Bhuj
|
$43,000
|
|
CRS
|
Title II Food Assistance
|
Bhuj, Ahmedabad
|
$187,000
|
|
| USAID/FFP Total |
$230,000
|
|||
|
DOD
|
Commodity Airlift
|
Relief Supplies and Equipment
|
All
|
1,600,000
|
| DOD Total |
$1,600,000
|
|||
| Total USG Assistance |
$3,477,806
|
Public Donation Information
In the interest of effective coordination of public response, USAID encourages the public to contact directly those private voluntary organizations (PVOs) currently working in the region in order to provide monetary donations.
InterAction, a coalition of voluntary humanitarian and development organizations working overseas, maintains a list of PVOs responding to the earthquake in India. InterAction can be contacted at 1-202-667-8227 x106, or via the Internet at <http://www.interaction.org/>. Those interested in providing specific technical relief services or commodities can obtain guidelines for private voluntary organizations through Volunteers in Technical Assistance's (VITA’s) Disaster Information Center at http://www.vita.org.
USAID will not deviate from standard Denton Program procedures for transporting privately-donated relief supplies. USAID will prioritize delivery of essential relief commodities. For more information on the Denton Program, please refer to the USAID website at http://www.usaid.gov/hum_response/pvc/denton.html.
For additional information about the relief effort in India, please refer to the Natural Disasters section of ReliefWeb at http://www.reliefweb.int/
USAID/OFDA fact sheets can be obtained from the USAID web site at http://www.usaid.gov/hum_response/ofda/situation.html
Pleace click here for map of India Earthquake