| all read about the earthquake in Pakistan. 20,000 | | | | 300 children at the local school escaped before |
| or more people dead and thousands more | | | | the school collapsed. But it is now Day 4 and no |
| stranded and not evacuated yet. Prime Minister | | | | help has been offered to the hamlet, which sits |
| Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan put the death toll at | | | | on a main road. |
| 23,000, up from an estimated 20,000 the day | | | | Beneath trees. Not inside a building as our Katrina |
| before. Of the 51,000 people injured in the | | | | survivors were. They aren't calling out for the |
| earthquake, only 3,110 have been evacuated by | | | | government to be blamed. They are not saying |
| helicopter, according to Pakistani officials. | | | | their government failed them. They aren't holding |
| Americans complained about the evacuation | | | | their hand out expecting handouts as if it were a |
| process during Katrina? What would Americans | | | | right. |
| have been saying if the earthquake crisis in | | | | Katrina was a disaster. People were killed. People |
| Pakistan were happening here? | | | | were injured. People lost their homes. Yes the |
| In one hamlet on the Pakistani side of Kashmir, | | | | government could have done a better job at |
| 100 miles northeast of Islamabad, Asghar Hussain | | | | responding. But let's keep it in perspective. When |
| Shah, a 49-year-old schoolteacher, shivered in a | | | | a hurricane is coming, people are told to put away |
| thin cardigan beside his broken house. | | | | food and water for 5 days. The federal response |
| He, his wife and children huddled under a sodden | | | | and evacuations began on the 4th day. |
| tarpaulin to escape the rain that fell over the | | | | Thousands of families in Himalayan Villages in |
| village, called Mohri Furman Shah. "We cannot sleep | | | | Pakistan will be lucky if anyone can reach them in |
| in the house," he said. "All the men and women | | | | that same 4 days. They won't call it racism. They |
| are frightened." Mr. Shah said his extended family | | | | won't blame the government for a natural |
| of seven others has camped out for three nights | | | | disaster. They will be grateful for whatever aid |
| and were now trying to keep dry under | | | | reaches them, whenever it gets there. |
| makeshift shelters beneath the trees. | | | | Maybe there are some Americans who should |
| The hamlet emerged with just six dead after all | | | | reflect on this. |