Aid starts coming to Nepal after quake kills 1,865

Associated Press By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA and MUNEEZA NAQVI: KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Tens of thousands of Nepalese who spent the night under a chilly sky were jolted awake by strong aftershocks Sunday, and rescuers aided by international teams cleared rubble in search of survivors after a powerful earthquake killed at least 1,865 people across the Himalayan region.

Saturday's magnitude 7.8 earthquake, which originated outside the capital Kathmandu, was the worst to hit the poor South Asian nation in over 80 years. It destroyed the old, historic part of Kathmandu, and was strong enough to be felt all across the northern part of neighboring India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan, where a total of 60 people died.Nepal bore the brunt of the quake's impact with at least 1,805 dead and more than 5,000 injured. The toll is expected to climb as more reports come in from far-flung areas, said Home Ministry official Laxmi Dhakal. Among the dead are 17 who were struck by a quake-triggered avalanche on Mount Everest that buried part of the base camp packed with foreign climbers at the end of the climbing season.

"There were at least three big quakes at night and early morning. How can we feel safe? This is never-ending and everyone is scared and worried," said Sundar Sah. "I hardly got much sleep. I was waking up every few hours and glad that I was alive."

When the earth first shook, residents fled homes and buildings in panic. Walls tumbled, trees swayed, power lines came crashing down and large cracks opened up on streets and walls.

After the chaos of Saturday — when little organized rescue and relief was seen — there was relatively more order on Sunday as rescue teams fanned out across the city. At one place in Kalanki neighborhood, police rescuers tried to extricate a man lying under a dead person, crushed by a pile of concrete slabs and iron beams. His family members stood nearby, crying and praying.

Police said the man's legs and hips were totally crushed.

"We are digging the debris around him, cutting through concrete and iron beams. We will be able to pull him out but his body under his waist is totally crushed. He is still alive and crying for help. We are going to save him," said police officer Suresh Rai.

Most areas were without power and water Sunday, but with Kathamandu airport reopened, first aid flights began delivering aid supplies. Workers were sending out tents and relief goods in trucks and helicopters, said disaster management official Rameshwar Dangal.

He said government and private schools have been turned into shelters.

Roads to Gorkha district, the site of the epicenter, were blocked by landslides, hindering rescue teams, chief district official Prakash Subedi said. Teams are trekking on foot through mountain trails to reach remote villages, and helicopters would also be deployed, he said when contacted by telephone.

Mukesh Kafle, the head of Nepal Electricity Authority, said power has been restored fully to the main government office, the airport and hospitals.

But the damage to the electricity cables and poles was making it difficult to restore power across many parts of the country.

"We have to make sure all cables are secure before turning the power on. Our technicians have been working round the clock to restore power to the people," he said.

More than two dozen aftershocks jolted Nepal on Saturday and more continued on Sunday. Forecasts called for rain and thunder showers Sunday and the temperatures were in the mid-50s (14 Celsius), cold enough to make camping outside uncomfortable.

Still, thousands of people spent the night at Tudikhel, a vast open ground in the middle of Kathmandu, just next to the old city that is lined with historic buildings and narrow lanes. Now it is in ruins.

"We hardly slept through the night. It was cold and it rained briefly and it was uncomfortable, but I am glad I brought my family out to the open," said Ratna Singh, a vegetable vendor who was huddled under a blanket with his wife and son.

"At least I knew my family was safe. Every time the ground shook at night, I thanked God my family was there with me and safe. I don't think I am going to be sleeping inside the house anytime soon. We are all petrified," he said.

The quake will likely put a huge strain on the resources of this poor country best known for Everest, the highest mountain in the world. The economy of Nepal, a nation of 27.8 million people, relies heavily on tourism, principally trekking and Himalayan mountain climbing.

The world reacted with alacrity to the disaster, offering aid in the form of money, relief material, equipment, expertise and rescue teams.

Among the first to move in was Nepal's giant neighbor India, with which it has close political, cultural and religious ties. Nepal is the world's only Hindu nation, and majority of Indians are Hindus although it does not have an official religion.

Indian air force planes landed Sunday with 43 tons of relief material, including tents and food, and nearly 200 rescuers, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said. The planes were returning to New Delhi with Indian nationals who were stranded in Kathmandu. More aid flights were planned for Sunday.

Hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley were overcrowded, running out of room for storing dead bodies and running out of emergency supplies, the United Nations said in a statement.

Officials said an avalanche after the quake swept base camp where expeditions were preparing to scale Everest, flattening tents and killing at least 17 climbers and guides and injuring 61. Their nationalities were not immediately known. An unknown number were missing.

The U.S. Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 7.8. It said the quake hit at 11:56 a.m. local time (0611 GMT) at Lamjung, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Kathmandu. Its depth was only 11 kilometers (7 miles), the largest shallow quake since the 8.2 temblor off the coast of Chile on April 1, 2014.

The shallower the quake the more destructive power it carries.

The quake occurred at the boundary between the two pieces, or plates, of Earth's crust, one of which holds India-Nepal and the other Eurasia to the north. The Indian plate is moving northward 45 millimeters (1.7 inches) a year under the Eurasian plate, and this results in earthquakes once every 500 years on an average, said Marin Clark, a geophysicist at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

So the quake was "definitely not a surprise," she said. Over millions of years, such quakes have led to the uplift of the Himalayas. Nepal suffered its worst recorded earthquake in 1934, which measured 8.0 and all but destroyed the cities of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan.

The power of Saturday's tremors brought down several buildings in the center of the capital, the ancient Old Kathmandu, including centuries-old temples and towers.

Among them was the nine-story Dharahara Tower, one of Kathmandu's landmarks built by Nepal's royal rulers as a watchtower in the 1800s and a UNESCO-recognized historical monument. It was reduced to rubble and there were reports of people trapped underneath.

The Kathmandu Valley is listed as a World Heritage site and is a collection of seven locations around Nepal's capital that reflect the country's rich religious history. The Buddhist stupas, public squares and Hindu temples are some of the most well-known sites in Kathmandu, and now some of the most deeply mourned.

The head of the U.N. cultural agency, Irina Bokova, said in a statement that UNESCO was ready to help Nepal rebuild from "extensive damage, including to historic monuments and buildings of the Kathmandu Valley."

Nepali journalist and author Shiwani Neupane tweeted: "The sadness is sinking in. We have lost our temples, our history, the places we grew up."

A 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit Nepal Saturday, killing more than 1,800 people and injuring at least 4,700, according to the Associated Press. Most of the fatalities occurred in Nepal, but there are also reports of victims in India, Bangladesh, Tibet, and along the Nepal-China border. 

A tourism official told Reuters that 10 people at the base camp for climbers of Everest, an international climbing destination, were killed after the earthquake sparked an avalanche. Dharahara Tower, a popular historical landmark in Kathmandu, built in 1832 and recognized by UNESCO, collapsed in the quake. The AP reported that hundreds of people buy tickets to ascend to the top of the watchtower on weekends.

Officials say death toll will rise The true devastation from the quake, which struck around noon, won't be known for some time, as rescue workers continue to wade through the rubble, particularly in the heavily populated Kathmandu Valley — where, according to the AP, building quality is often low. 
Home Ministry official Laxmi Dhakal has said the death toll will rise. For perspective on the magnitude of this quake — at 7.8, the AP reports, it was considerably more powerful than the one that devastated Haiti in 2010, and the same magnitude as the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. 
Three months ago, the Nepali Times editor Kunda Dixit wrote about the lack of preparedness for earthquakes. 
The Washington Post's digital foreign editor, and Neplai citizen, Anup Kaphle contributed to this in-depth look at what happened in the city. Mashable has a list of how to help earthquake victims.