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  • 7 weeks ago
Survivors of a powerful earthquake that turned homes in Afghanistan into rubble are now wondering where they can they find shelter from pouring rain and the coming winter cold. Others who made it through an even deadlier quake two months ago share their anxiety. Watch. 

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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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