Unimaginable

The earthquake that struck Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan is unimaginable. The number of dead is now said to be between 18,000 to 30,000, mostly in northern Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct. 9 -- Rescuers struggled to reach victims of the devastating earthquake that struck near the Indian-Pakistani border in the disputed Kashmir region Saturday. The quake killed thousands of people, most in remote parts of northern Pakistan, with figures on Sunday ranging from more than 18,000 to as many as 30,000 feared dead.Washington Post

Countries are gearing up to send aid to Pakistan with India offering help to it's neighbor. The table below is the initial amounts. More than likely those figures will be revised today and in the coming days as the scope of the disaster becomes better known.

INTERNATIONAL AID
EU: $3.6m
Australia: $380,000
UK: $177,000 and 60-strong team
US: $100,000
China: 49 rescuers, dogs, 17 tons of equipment
Japan: 50 rescue workers
Turkey: five teams of rescuers and 11 tonnes of aid
Russia: 30 rescuers, sniffer dogs, special equipment
Germany: $60,000 BBC News

Israel has offered it's assistance as well and their are hopes that Pakistan will continue the recent warming of relations and accept the help.

Large-scale Israeli assistance following a massive earthquake in 1999 in northwestern Turkey that killed over 15,000 people, and following a huge earthquake in western India in 2001 that killed some 20,000 people, helped strengthen ties between Israel and those two countries.

Following the tsunami in southern Asia in late 2004, Israel airlifted to Indonesia, with which it does not have diplomatic ties, some 75 tons of aid for Indonesian victims. Shalom met with his Indonesian counterpart last month at the UN. Jerusalem Post

Please pray for all the victims and their families.