JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Ahmad Khan Safi had a good life in Afghanistan. The farmer raised livestock in the Dewagal Valley of Kunar Province, and people traveled from across the country to visit the area. Tourists marveled at its verdant landscape, winding paths and formidable slopes. The valley appeared untouched.
It was hard to reach, so inaccessible that people had to change cars four times from the city of Jalalabad, in neighboring Nangarhar province, and walk the rest of the way for several hours or ride a mule.
Safi had built a 10-room house from mud and stone because wood and cement were too expensive and impractical to transport. The home collapsed as soon as a major earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people struck on Aug. 31. His shock was quickly replaced by fear and panic.
“I was trapped in the mud and couldn’t breathe,” he told The Associated Press from a Jalalabad hospital. “I struggled a lot to get out, but was hit by rocks and fell so hard that my leg was injured.” He spent the night under the rubble, not knowing if his family was alive or dead.
Help came the following morning, around 10 a.m., when people arrived on foot from other districts.
Region’s remoteness complicating rescue efforts
The devastating quake was not the strongest or deadliest in Afghanistan’s recent history. But remote and rugged Kunar has defied rescue efforts. The ruling Taliban authorities have deployed helicopters or airdropped army commandos to evacuate survivors.
There is no helicopter landing site in Dewagal Valley and no path for vehicles, let alone heavy machinery. Many of the injured died because there was no way to reach them, said Safi, who was carried to safety on people’s shoulders. A stream of homemade stretchers trickled down to more hospitable terrain.
“There was not a single household without dead or wounded people, and not a single home was left standing. Some 130 people died in our area. The earthquake killed 22 members of my family — children, nephews, nieces, and my elder brother — and injured 17.”
Entire families were wiped out, he added.
The death toll from this disaster exceeds 2,000, although this figure could rise as more bodies are recovered from villages that were razed to the ground and are now piles of dust.
“Now I think about it, whatever wealth and savings we had from our grandfather’s time have all gone, and now we have nothing,” said Safi. “My family lost about 300 cows, sheep and goats in this earthquake. All the people in the village were farmers and livestock keepers.
“We have no other source of income. I don’t know what to do or where to go because our homes collapsed. Not even a wall is left. What are we going to do with this life?”
‘We can’t spend the night in the mountains anymore’
The U.N. estimates that the quake has affected up to 500,000 people, more than half of them children, and that the communities hit include those where Afghans forcibly returned from neighboring countries had begun rebuilding their lives.
Roads and bridges were damaged. Dozens of water sources have been destroyed, increasing health risks for survivors.
Rain, triggering landslides and floods, has worsened conditions. Schools and health facilities have vanished. With so many buildings destroyed, there is little shelter left. People live and sleep under open skies.
The steep slopes of Kunar resemble a war zone. Houses that took years to build were decimated in an instant. An assessment by the Islamic Relief charity said just 2% of homes in Kunar remain intact.
Ghulam Rahman, from Chawkay District in the central part of Kunar Province, lost his wife and five of his children in the earthquake. He was trapped in the wreckage for half an hour, next to his wife as she took her last breath.
“Dust and small stones were in my mouth so I couldn’t speak properly,” he said. “I heard her praying.”
Some of his family’s bodies were recovered on the first day after the quake. The rest remained under the debris for a further 24 hours. Only two of his seven children survived. One was staying at a religious school. The other had been sleeping on the rooftop.
Rocks tumbled onto Rahman’s home from houses at a higher altitude and the mountain, even as the ground opened beneath him. He said scores of people in his village died.
Rahman offered a piece of his family’s farmland for their burial.
“We had everything, and now it’s destroyed. We want the government to give us flat land. We can’t spend the night in the mountains anymore. I can’t go there because I see dead family members, and life there is difficult. I am afraid of that place.”
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Associated Press writer Abdul Qahar Afghan contributed to this report from Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
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