 "Nepal quake death toll exceeds 2,400")
Powerful aftershocks continued to convulse Nepal on Sunday, sending residents of capital Kathmandu screaming into the streets again and again. The supply of water, food and electricity remained severely affected.
A day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed at least 2,400 people and injured about 5,900, residents grew restless and the Nepali government, weighed by the enormity of the challenge, struggled to provide relief and hope.
Streets in parts of Kathmandu, a city of about 1.2 million people, were impassable - not so much from quake damage but because tens of thousands took up residence there. It was a strategy endorsed by the government.
The country's prime minister, Sushil Koirala, attending a conference in Indonesia when the quake struck, had rushed back to Kathmandu and was to speak to his desperate countrymen in a televised address. But the speech was delayed, as were relief efforts, by strong tremors that continued to rock Nepal.
The authorities appeared ill-equipped to rescue those trapped and would have trouble maintaining adequate supplies of water, electricity and food. "In my neighbourhood, the police are conspicuous by their absence," said Sridhar Khatri of the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies in Kathmandu. "There is not even a show of force to deter vandalism, which some reports say is on the rise."
On Sunday, the government began setting up 16 relief stations across Kathmandu and the rest of the country, while rescue operations continued. These stations were expected to ease distribution of water, food and medicine, said Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a spokesman for the country's home ministry.
The home ministry confirmed more than 2,400 had been killed and more than 5,900 were injured.
The Indian government on Sunday said the death toll in India because of the quake's impact had reached 62 and the number of those injured was 259, while the US State Department confirmed three American citizens had died in Nepal.
In India, Sunday's tremors were felt in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, for about 30 seconds at 12:42 pm.
Thousands of Kathmandu's residents squatted on streets throughout the city - either because their homes were destroyed or they were scared because of continued aftershocks, including ones of magnitude 6.7 and 5.1. The Nepal government announced schools would remain closed for at least five days and urged government officials to help in local rescue efforts, instead of their usual jobs.
Stephen Groves, who lives in Kathmandu, said he was inspecting a building for cracks shortly after noon on Sunday when the biggest of many aftershocks hit, leading to terrified screams from those nearby. "The whole time I was thinking if the building next to me was going to come down on top of me," Groves said in an email. "People here are in panic, and every aftershock contributes to that. They are not going indoors, they are staying on the roads and in open areas. Many are searching for family members."
The city was awash with rumors that the worst aftershocks were yet to come and there were fears of greater destruction in the countryside, large swathes of which remained unreachable by phone.
Subhash Ghimire, the editor-in-chief of the Nepalese newspaper República, said he managed to reach his father in his village, home to about 3,000 people, near the epicentre in the Gorkha district. "He said not a single house was left in our village, including our own," Ghimire said.
On Mount Everest, helicopter rescue operations began Sunday morning to bring wounded climbers down from the mountain, where at least 18 climbers were killed and 41 injured, making the earthquake the deadliest event in the mountain's history. Aftershocks and small avalanches through the day continued to plague the nearly 800 people staying at the mountain base camp and at higher elevation camps.
After posting on Twitter that he was "fairly safe but stuck" at the base camp, a climber, Jim Davidson, then provided a more alarming update from Camp 1, which is above the base camp. "Just had our biggest aftershock yet at C1 on Everest. Smaller than original quake but glacier shook & avalanches."
Nick Talbot, 39, was attempting to be the first person with cystic fibrosis to climb Mount Everest when a 100- to 200-yard wall of ice and snow came barrelling towards him. "I ran away," he said. "I thought there was no chance I could get away. I just had my socks on. It knocked me into the rocks. I got up and it knocked me over again." He was evacuated by helicopter on Sunday. He returned without anything but the clothes he was wearing. All of his belongings were buried by the avalanche. "I'm sure there will have been many fatalities just because of the scale of it," he said.
Tulasi Prasad Gautam, director general of Nepal's Tourism Department, said he feared continued aftershocks had trapped more climbers. In addition to the dead and injured, nearly 25 climbers who had been on route to Camp 2 from Camp 1 on Saturday are missing.
"Actually, the tents are still there for some 20 to 25 climbers who were heading towards Camp 2 in the course of the climbing practice. But they are not in contact," Gautam said.
In a blog post on Sunday, Eric Simonson of International Mountain Guides said the news from the Everest base camp "was quite bleak", and that the company's encampment "has been turned into a triage centre, and our big dining tents are now being used as hospital tents."
"The tons and tons of falling ice going this vertical distance created a huge aerosol avalanche and accompanying air blast," he wrote. "It is worth noting that over many expeditions we have never seen an avalanche from this area that was even remotely of this scale."
The three Americans who were killed died near Everest, according to a spokeswoman from the US Embassy in Nepal on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said it was preparing to send two Boeing 747s carrying 260 aid workers and more than 90 tonnes of cargo to Kathmandu. Colonel Yoram Lorado, the leader of the aid delegation, said the priorities were to set up a search and rescue mission and a full field hospital that should be operational within 12 hours of landing.
"We are hoping to find survivors in the rubble," Lorado told reporters before leaving Israel. "The main mission is to save lives," he added. About 600 Israelis are believed to be in Nepal, a popular destination for young backpackers after their compulsory army service.
Nepal's existing political discord is likely to hamper rescue and rebuilding efforts. The government has been barely functional for more than a decade, with politicians of just about every stripe fighting over the scraps of the increasingly desperate economy. A 10-year civil war between Maoist parties and the government ended in 2006, but the resulting Constituent Assembly spent four years trying to write a constitution without success. Paralysis ensued until elections in November 2013 led to the unexpected rout of the previously dominant Maoists.
But the new government has been just as divided by differences, and a continuing search for consensus. The threat of crippling strikes by the Maoists has stopped the country's two dominant parties - both relatively moderate - from pushing through a constitution over the Maoists' objections.
Nepal's people had already become exhausted with the political paralysis, but those feelings could turn explosive if relief and rescue efforts failed in the coming weeks, analysts said. The fear of just such an outcome could spur an intense international relief effort, as an odd collection of countries - including China, India and the US - were already cooperating on pushing Nepal's politicians toward compromise.
A day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed at least 2,400 people and injured about 5,900, residents grew restless and the Nepali government, weighed by the enormity of the challenge, struggled to provide relief and hope.
Streets in parts of Kathmandu, a city of about 1.2 million people, were impassable - not so much from quake damage but because tens of thousands took up residence there. It was a strategy endorsed by the government.
The country's prime minister, Sushil Koirala, attending a conference in Indonesia when the quake struck, had rushed back to Kathmandu and was to speak to his desperate countrymen in a televised address. But the speech was delayed, as were relief efforts, by strong tremors that continued to rock Nepal.
The authorities appeared ill-equipped to rescue those trapped and would have trouble maintaining adequate supplies of water, electricity and food. "In my neighbourhood, the police are conspicuous by their absence," said Sridhar Khatri of the South Asia Centre for Policy Studies in Kathmandu. "There is not even a show of force to deter vandalism, which some reports say is on the rise."
On Sunday, the government began setting up 16 relief stations across Kathmandu and the rest of the country, while rescue operations continued. These stations were expected to ease distribution of water, food and medicine, said Laxmi Prasad Dhakal, a spokesman for the country's home ministry.
The home ministry confirmed more than 2,400 had been killed and more than 5,900 were injured.
The Indian government on Sunday said the death toll in India because of the quake's impact had reached 62 and the number of those injured was 259, while the US State Department confirmed three American citizens had died in Nepal.
In India, Sunday's tremors were felt in West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, for about 30 seconds at 12:42 pm.
Thousands of Kathmandu's residents squatted on streets throughout the city - either because their homes were destroyed or they were scared because of continued aftershocks, including ones of magnitude 6.7 and 5.1. The Nepal government announced schools would remain closed for at least five days and urged government officials to help in local rescue efforts, instead of their usual jobs.
Stephen Groves, who lives in Kathmandu, said he was inspecting a building for cracks shortly after noon on Sunday when the biggest of many aftershocks hit, leading to terrified screams from those nearby. "The whole time I was thinking if the building next to me was going to come down on top of me," Groves said in an email. "People here are in panic, and every aftershock contributes to that. They are not going indoors, they are staying on the roads and in open areas. Many are searching for family members."
The city was awash with rumors that the worst aftershocks were yet to come and there were fears of greater destruction in the countryside, large swathes of which remained unreachable by phone.
Subhash Ghimire, the editor-in-chief of the Nepalese newspaper República, said he managed to reach his father in his village, home to about 3,000 people, near the epicentre in the Gorkha district. "He said not a single house was left in our village, including our own," Ghimire said.
On Mount Everest, helicopter rescue operations began Sunday morning to bring wounded climbers down from the mountain, where at least 18 climbers were killed and 41 injured, making the earthquake the deadliest event in the mountain's history. Aftershocks and small avalanches through the day continued to plague the nearly 800 people staying at the mountain base camp and at higher elevation camps.
After posting on Twitter that he was "fairly safe but stuck" at the base camp, a climber, Jim Davidson, then provided a more alarming update from Camp 1, which is above the base camp. "Just had our biggest aftershock yet at C1 on Everest. Smaller than original quake but glacier shook & avalanches."
Nick Talbot, 39, was attempting to be the first person with cystic fibrosis to climb Mount Everest when a 100- to 200-yard wall of ice and snow came barrelling towards him. "I ran away," he said. "I thought there was no chance I could get away. I just had my socks on. It knocked me into the rocks. I got up and it knocked me over again." He was evacuated by helicopter on Sunday. He returned without anything but the clothes he was wearing. All of his belongings were buried by the avalanche. "I'm sure there will have been many fatalities just because of the scale of it," he said.
Tulasi Prasad Gautam, director general of Nepal's Tourism Department, said he feared continued aftershocks had trapped more climbers. In addition to the dead and injured, nearly 25 climbers who had been on route to Camp 2 from Camp 1 on Saturday are missing.
"Actually, the tents are still there for some 20 to 25 climbers who were heading towards Camp 2 in the course of the climbing practice. But they are not in contact," Gautam said.
In a blog post on Sunday, Eric Simonson of International Mountain Guides said the news from the Everest base camp "was quite bleak", and that the company's encampment "has been turned into a triage centre, and our big dining tents are now being used as hospital tents."
"The tons and tons of falling ice going this vertical distance created a huge aerosol avalanche and accompanying air blast," he wrote. "It is worth noting that over many expeditions we have never seen an avalanche from this area that was even remotely of this scale."
The three Americans who were killed died near Everest, according to a spokeswoman from the US Embassy in Nepal on Sunday.
Also on Sunday, the Israeli military said it was preparing to send two Boeing 747s carrying 260 aid workers and more than 90 tonnes of cargo to Kathmandu. Colonel Yoram Lorado, the leader of the aid delegation, said the priorities were to set up a search and rescue mission and a full field hospital that should be operational within 12 hours of landing.
"We are hoping to find survivors in the rubble," Lorado told reporters before leaving Israel. "The main mission is to save lives," he added. About 600 Israelis are believed to be in Nepal, a popular destination for young backpackers after their compulsory army service.
Nepal's existing political discord is likely to hamper rescue and rebuilding efforts. The government has been barely functional for more than a decade, with politicians of just about every stripe fighting over the scraps of the increasingly desperate economy. A 10-year civil war between Maoist parties and the government ended in 2006, but the resulting Constituent Assembly spent four years trying to write a constitution without success. Paralysis ensued until elections in November 2013 led to the unexpected rout of the previously dominant Maoists.
But the new government has been just as divided by differences, and a continuing search for consensus. The threat of crippling strikes by the Maoists has stopped the country's two dominant parties - both relatively moderate - from pushing through a constitution over the Maoists' objections.
Nepal's people had already become exhausted with the political paralysis, but those feelings could turn explosive if relief and rescue efforts failed in the coming weeks, analysts said. The fear of just such an outcome could spur an intense international relief effort, as an odd collection of countries - including China, India and the US - were already cooperating on pushing Nepal's politicians toward compromise.
© 2015 The New York Times News Service