Quake 5: The Valley of Death

Article from the Globe and Mail:

UWAN, PAKISTAN — In a hail of flying rocks, while the earth broke and fell hundreds of metres into the valley below, Sabir Hussain Shah took a giant leap.

The 40-year-old threw himself across a freshly opened crevice to save his children as they screamed on a mountain ledge during the earthquake that ravaged this remote part of Pakistan two weeks ago today.

Now, Mr. Shah is preparing for a leap that frightens him vastly more. As a leader in the village of Suwan, Pakistan, and a great-great-grandson of the warlord who founded the remote settlement almost two centuries ago, Mr. Shah is trying to persuade his neighbours to abandon this place.

“There is no life here any more,” Mr. Shah said, standing on a footpath overlooking the ruined houses and cornfields on carved shelves in the mountains.

The landslides and collapsing homes killed 24 of Suwan's 700 villagers.

In the first days, the survivors didn't have a moment to think about anything except digging for bodies, building shelters, and foraging for buried food. They clawed at the mud with their bare hands and slept in the rain.

Now, the men who poke through the rubble for useful items have slowed their work. The ones who push boulders off the narrow paths are leaning idly on their tools. Everybody squats among splintered beams and shattered rocks, talking quietly and seriously.

They love their village, with its rich soil and pure water from nearby glaciers. But there is little of what they used to call home left: The landslides washed away 90 per cent of the homes, 60 per cent of the livestock, and most of the stores of food. Their tools are buried and their water pipes broken................................................