By: Tiffany Wong

The deadliest earthquake in the last two decades hit Afghanistan, which caused many people to become homeless or die. Officials have estimated that more than 1000 people died. The United Nations estimated 770 deaths and 1,440 injured. In a city, Paktika, there were 1500 destroyed houses.

Scattered across the hillside were muddy brick and pieces of destroyed homes. Thousands of people spent the night in the cold with rain, wind, or snow. According to the New York Times, “Nearly every car we passed was carrying some kind of aid. There were small cars from local charities with piles of bread in their trunks and large trucks ferrying loads of flour, rice, and blankets in the back.” But even with A TON of support from International Humanitarian Organizations, local aid groups, and generous locals, everyone needs aid. Everyone was going through challenges. Survivors were left with destroyed villages and lost their families.

After the earthquake struck, Gulpar Khan, one of the survivors, saw every house had collapsed and a TON of his neighbors screaming for help. “It was like a scene from a movie — I could never imagine such a thing in the village,” he said. He had lost 11 of his family members. “He, and others at the hospital, described a nightmarish scene in pounding rain, as homes crumbled, cries for help reverberated and many people lay dead in the debris.”

During the Earthquake, this women’s mud-brick house collapsed. When she woke up in the hospital, she felt her daughter’s chest stop moving. That earthquake started early Wednesday morning and measured a magnitude of 5.9, making it strong.