Earthquake! A picture diary.

Hey friends,

Here are some of the pictures from the Quake affected places in Muzzafarabad, which was very close to the epicenter.

We left Lahore for Islamabad on the Motorway, which was about 3-4 hours by car. The drive is initially boring since the landscape is flat and dry, but as soon as you progress further, you pass through the Salt Range Mountains, which makes for a very interesting drive.

I don't know why, but I found this tree very fascinating. When you see all other trees covered in leaves, this one was without any. The stark contrast made for an interesting sight.

A view from the mountain road, where one can see tents plus temporary shelters all set up. It was a sight to see from up above because one gets a clearer picture of how huge the scale of devastation is.

It's a beautiful city, complete with a river flowing through.

The Tent City where we distributed aid and relief goods. There was a near mob-riot scene as people realized we were giving out money.

The white areas on the mountains is where the debris came falling down, taking everything in its path, including houses and people.

One of the many houses that were damaged. There is nothing liveable in the city. Every single building, house, shop has been damaged.

There are bodies beneath this rubble. The thought of knowing someone may be under there was a scary one, and brought on a strong feeling of helplessness in me.

As I said, nothing is safe. Every single place has been damaged. People are living out in the tents. Even those houses that are partially damaged are empty as people still fear, and rightly so because aftershocks and tremors are still being felt.

The night before, the men stayed in this tent, where we had to endure temperatures of below 10 degrees centigrade, which in my book is way too cold. We got a very good idea of the conditions these people were in now.

I left with a strong feeling of helplessness, because I wanted to help each and every person out there, mainly the kids. More on that later.

---Mansur