Immigs clamor for word on kin

By Derek Rose and Jonathan Lemire

As word of the devastating earthquake in the Himalayas reached New York, recent immigrants scrambled yesterday to learn if relatives in their homelands had survived.

Dozens of people huddled around television sets tuned to CNN and BBC America, desperate for scraps of information about the ravaged areas of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Kashmir.

"We're all just feeling it," said Mohammed Razui, president of a Brooklyn-based Pakistani and Bangladeshi civic group. "We're, 'Oh, my God!'"

In the area of Midwood, Brooklyn - known as Little Pakistan - and in other immigrant neighborhoods, people reacted with horror but then asked how they could aid the relief effort, Razui said.

"The people in this community, they're not well off, but they're trying to help," said Razui, whose Council of Peoples organization is running a clothing drive.

"This is something they can do," said Razui, whose own family in Iqbaltown, Pakistan, survived the quake. "Thank God, they're okay."

"We stopped work and went to watch TV all night," said Baber Yaqoob, 35, a Pakistani immigrant who walked out of his video store job to follow the news. "It's so scary."

Another man, too distraught to give his name, fretted that he had not yet heard from his relatives in Pakistan.

"I hope they're okay. We're trying to call them," he said, his voice trailing off. "We couldn't reach them ..."

Source: NY Daily News