00:01Survivors of a powerful earthquake that turned homes in Afghanistan into rubble are now wondering
00:06where they can find shelter from pouring rain and the coming winter cold.
00:10Others who made it through an even deadlier quake two months ago share their anxiety.
00:15Taliban authorities say that this week's 6.3 magnitude tremor that rattled the northern
00:20provinces of Samangan and Balkh killed at least 27 people.
00:26The epicenter was located in Samangan's Kalm district, where a man named Gulabuddin is
00:31mourning his daughter-in-law.
00:33She did not manage to reach the ground level of the family home in time.
00:37Gulabuddin himself was hit in the head by a falling brick.
00:40We lost all of our belongings, he told AFP.
00:44He said, winter is coming.
00:46We have children aged four and five.
00:49Where can we go?
00:50For two nights now we've been staying with relatives.
00:53Rain has turned a dirt path in his village into a muddy puddle, surrounded by cracked
00:57and collapsed walls and roofs that caved in.
01:01Similar scenes emerged in areas of eastern Afghanistan that were struck by a shallow 6.0
01:07magnitude earthquake in late August.
01:10That one killed more than 2,200 people, making it the deadliest in Afghanistan's recent history.
01:17In the farming village of Mazardara in the mountains of Kunar province, Bazarga Safai saw children
01:23swept away as this earlier quake hit.
01:26Two months later, she said she feared others would die of cold.
01:29Safai, a 50-year-old farmer, lost two relatives in that earlier earthquake, and now shares
01:42a tent with 15 people, 12 of them children.
01:45We were given a tent, but it's not suitable for winter, she said.
01:50Most residents prefer sleeping outside, in gardens or on terraces, fearful of spending
01:57the night in what remains of the village's houses, as aftershocks are a frequent occurrence.
02:03People will have to endure temperatures that will soon drop as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius,
02:08minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit, without warm blankets or proper winter clothes.
02:14Najibullah Hanafi, a Taliban information official in Kunar, said,
02:19The earthquake happened in summer, and the organizations provided aid based on the needs
02:23at the time.
02:25He added,
02:26Now that winter is coming, they need clothes and things that can help them survive the cold.
02:31Despite these dire conditions, international aid organizations have repeatedly warned that
02:36their work will be limited because major donors led by the U.S. government have pulled funding.
02:44At the foot of the mountain Mazar Dara sits on, camps have been set up.
02:52But the International Organization for Migration says a survey among survivors showed that 77%
02:59of respondents indicated they planned to stay put even in winter, either because they cannot
03:04afford to move, or because they do not know where to go.
03:08The only solution for many of them is to rebuild their homes, but make them better.
03:13Even at the cost of replacing the traditional stone houses.
03:17Hanafi, the information officer, said the Taliban authorities were building dozens of new houses
03:22in Mazar Dara.
03:24Correspondence there, however, saw only one bulldozer clearing debris.
03:29A 27-year-old farmer, Syed Wali Safai, said,
03:33We need to rebuild right way, with concrete and bricks.
03:36Another resident, Awal John, said,
03:39We want to rebuild our house in the same place, but not in the same way.
03:43If we don't want our house to collapse again, only concrete will work.
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