Devastating earthquake leaves Nepal in rubble,

more than a thousand killed

People survey a site damaged by an earthquake, in Kathmandu, Nepal, April 25, 2015. Reuters

2015-04-25
A powerful earthquake struck Nepal and sent tremors through northern India on
Saturday, killing more than 1,300 people, touching off a deadly avalanche on Mount
Everest and toppling a 19th-century tower in the capital Kathmandu.
[Washington Post, however, said the death toll had crossed 1,400, while unofficial
sources say it could be twice or even thrice as much.]
There were reports of devastation in outlying, isolated mountainous areas after the
midday quake of magnitude 7.9, Nepal's worst in 81 years, centred 50 miles (80 km)
east of the second city, Pokhara.

As fears grew of a humanitarian disaster in the impoverished Himalayan nation of 28

million, an overwhelmed government appealed for foreign help.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, and help
has been offered by countries around the world, reports BBC.
India was first to respond by sending in military aircraft with medical equipment and
relief teams.
Bangladesh also announced that it would send medical and humanitarian aids to the
neighbouring country.
A police spokesman said the death toll in Nepal alone had reached 1,341, about half
of them in the Kathmandu Valley.
A further 36 fatalities were reported in northern India, 12 in Chinese Tibet and three in
Bangladesh.
The quake was more destructive for being shallow, toppling buildings, opening gaping
cracks in roads and sending people scurrying into the open as aftershocks rattled their
damaged homes.
Thousands prepared to spend the night outside, setting up makeshift tents, sitting
around campfires and eating food provided by volunteers.
Indian tourist Devyani Pant was in a Kathmandu coffee shop with friends when
"suddenly the tables started trembling and paintings on the wall fell on the ground.
"I screamed and rushed outside," she told Reuters by telephone from the capital,
where at least 300 people died.
"We are now collecting bodies and rushing the injured to the ambulance. We are being
forced to pile several bodies one above the other to fit them in."
An Indian army mountaineering team found 18 bodies on Mount Everest, where an
avalanche unleashed by the earthquake swept through the base camp.
More than 1,000 climbers had gathered there at the start of the climbing season.

Choti Sherpa, who works at the Everest Summiteers Association, was unable to call
her family and colleagues on the mountain.
"Everyone is trying to contact each other, but we can't," she said. "We are all very
worried."
Tourist trail
A second tourism official, Mohan Krishna Sapkota, said it was "hard to even assess
what the death toll and the extent of damage" around Everest could be.
"The trekkers are scattered all around the base camp and some had even trekked
further up. It is almost impossible to get in touch with anyone."
Around 300,000 foreign tourists were estimated to be in various parts of Nepal for the
spring trekking and climbing season in the Himalayas, and officials were overwhelmed
by calls from concerned friends and relatives.
Nepal, sandwiched between India and China, has had its share of natural disasters.
Its worst earthquake in 1934 killed more than 8,500 people.
Political instability does little to boost Nepal's resilience; it has still not upgraded its
weather forecasting system despite being surprised by unseasonal blizzards last
autumn that killed 32 in the Annapurna massif.
In 2001, Nepal made global headlines when the crown prince, Dipendra, gunned down
10 members of his family, including his father, King Birendra Shah, before killing
himself.
A Maoist rebellion subsequently transformed the kingdom into a republican democracy
and abolished the monarchy altogether in 2008.
A new constitution has yet to be agreed, however.
"This earthquake is the nightmare scenario," said Ian Kelman of the UCL Institute for
Risk and Disaster Reduction in London.
"The country has ... suffered terrible conflicts, poor governance, and heart-wrenching

poverty, all of which created and perpetuated the vulnerability which has been
devastatingly exposed."
Tower toppled
Among the Kathmandu landmarks destroyed by the quake was the 60-metre-high
(100-foot) Dharahara Tower, built in 1832 for the queen of Nepal, with a viewing
balcony that had been open to visitors for the last 10 years.
A jagged stump just 10 metres high was all that was left of the lighthouse-like
structure.
As bodies were pulled out of the ruins, a policeman said up to 200 people had been
trapped inside.
At the main hospital in Kathmandu, volunteers formed human chains to clear the way
for ambulances to bring in the injured.
Across the city, rescuers scrabbled through the rubble of destroyed buildings, among
them ancient, wooden Hindu temples.
"I can see three bodies of monks trapped in the debris of a collapsed building near a
monastery," said Pant, the tourist.
"We are trying to pull the bodies out and look for anyone who is trapped."
Everest avalanche
The Everest avalanches, first reported by climbers, raised fears for those on the
world's loftiest peak a year after a massive snowslide killed 16 Nepali guides just
above base camp.
Romanian climber Alex Gavan tweeted that there had been a "huge earthquake then
huge avalanche" at base camp, forcing him to run for his life.
In a later tweet Gavan made a desperate appeal for a helicopter to fly in and evacuate
climbers who had been hurt: "Many dead. Much more badly injured. More to die if not
heli asap."

Another climber, Daniel Mazur, said the base camp had been severely damaged and
his team were trapped.
"Please pray for everyone," he tweeted.
The tremors were felt as far away as New Delhi and other cities in northern India, with
reports that they had lasted up to a minute.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi dispatched a military air transporter with three
tonnes of supplies and a 40-strong disaster response team to Nepal.
Three more planes were to follow, carrying a mobile hospital and further relief teams.

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