Preparing to make a push into the most isolated parts of quake-devastated Nepal, soldiers today were readying food, water and other emergency supplies to be loaded onto helicopters in this small town near the earthquake's epicenter.
Gorkha, which would barely count as a village in much of the world, is the district's administrative, transport and trading center for surrounding tiny villages.
It was being used as a staging post to get rescuers and supplies to those remote communities, some of which are believed to be nearly completely destroyed.
"In the rural areas, 90 per cent of the people have been affected by this calamity," district official Surya Mohan Adhikari said. "They have lost their homes and livestock, they have no way of getting food."
"It is very difficult to reach them," he added. "They are cut off by road slides on the mountain roads, and the wind and rain is making it difficult for helicopters to land."
Nepal was facing a humanitarian crisis as tens of thousands rendered homeless by the earthquake are living in the open without clean water or sanitation.
Chaos reigned back at Kathmandu's small airport, with the onslaught of relief flights creating major backups on the tarmac.
The United Nations says it was releasing USD 15 million from its central emergency response fund for quake victims.
The funds will allow international humanitarian groups to scale up operations and provide shelter, water, medical supplies and logistical services, UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters yesterday.
Trucks carrying food were on their way to affected districts outside the hard-hit and densely-populated Kathmandu valley, and distribution of the food was expected to start soon.
Citing government figures, Haq said an estimated 8 million people have been affected by the quake in 39 of Npael's districts, and more than 1.4 million need food assistance, including 750,000 who live near the epicenter in poor quality housing.
