Emily Mandev/Staff reporter
On October 8th 2005 at 8:50am, the Kashmir region of Pakistan suffered a terrible earthquake with a magnitude of 7.6 that destroyed the homes of many. Reports stated that the epicenter of the earthquake was approximately 9 km away north of the city of Muzaffarabad.
According to the Pakistani government, the earthquake killed over 87,350 people in which 19,00 were children, injured roughly 38,00 and left over 3.5 million residents homeless and devastated.
An estimated 250,000 farm animals had been killed from barns and other enclosures to collapse, and over 500,000 were left needing shelter for the harsh winter, which was very soon after the earthquake.
Over 780,000 homes and buildings were left so damaged that people had no choice but to tear them down and start all over again with whatever little money they had left after this traumatic event occurred.
Thousands of schools, hospitals and many other essential services for citizens near the epicentre, were damaged and needed months, even years until they were deemed useable again after repairs.
Over 10 years later after this incident, citizens were still being impacted by economic and mental health issues regarding the earthquake and had turned from a beautiful tourist attracting region in the mountains, to a struggling region full of people dealing with the stress from years past.
Many people such as Ihtesham-ul-Haq, aged 9 at the time of events, had dealt with a lot of stress and PTSD regarding the events. “We were having English lessons when I heard a loud bang. Everything went dark. When I woke up a few hours later, I found myself buried under the concrete walls. It was dark so I couldn’t see anything, but I could hear faint voices of some of my fellow friends.” This was a very common experience for a lot of other people who were attending schools in Kashmir and other areas in the region.
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