What started as an unremarkable Sunday in Afghanistan’s Herat for Asma (name changed), and her husband and daughter, turned into a veritable nightmare as the entire building the family was residing in shook violently sometime before midnight. The powerful series earthquake that killed thousands of people in western Afghanistan, one of the deadliest earthquakes to strike the country in two decades, came just as Asma was trying to put her daughter to sleep.
The moment when catastrophe hit is a blur even after nearly four days since the tragedy occurred. All Asma can recollect is that she, her daughter, and husband ran down fearing they had mere seconds before the world crashed around them. Ever since then they have not gone back into their apartment.
“I cannot even explain how we felt at that moment. It was the most terrifying moment. I ran with my daughter and she slipped as we rushed. It was only later that I realised that my daughter had hurt her leg and head and we required urgent hospital care. But we are scared of going back to our home and we have no medicines or hospitals or money,” said Asma explaining her condition. Locals have informed her that at least five thousand people have died. Herat is no stranger to earthquakes, and Asma remembered over a phone call that she experienced an earthquake last year as well but this year it was a frightening experience.
