The hotel we slept in was about 10km north of Buttal. On the way back we saw little in the way of destruction even compared with what we saw the night before. It is quite strange the way the shock wave travels. We later find out it travels along the fault line which is why clode to the epicentre some houses are still standing close to others that aren’t.
We reach Buttal still early and start filming. We see the village on the valley side where all the houses have collapsed. We see the school in ruins. We see the makeshift village where those left are building shelters from the rubble of what is left. We then walk round to the other side of the valley to a spot where about 20 houses have collapsed and the men are trying to dig through to any potential survivors. As you negotiate a path through towards them you have no choice but to walk on the roofs of the collapsed houses praying that they don’t cave in and even worse harm anyone underneath.
We continue to shoot around the village interviewing one mother who had gone to get water from the well not two minutes away, leaving two children in the house. Coming back to nothing and not knowing whether under her mud hut they are alive or dead.
At this stage we are 48 hours after the earthquake.
Finished shooting we do a live. The M4’s thankfully work and need to think about editing a piece for the news and then getting back to London. Given our luck so far we find someone who will drive a tape back to Islamabad for us as well as us trying to ftp it from the field. Hopefully one will work.
It is very hard to get exact numbers but about a hundred died in the school and an another couple of hundred in the village.
They did get a visit from the President the day before who said they must work together and stay in the houses that were still standing. Since then nothing.
We are taken to a house up on the hill - somewhere quiet to start editing.
