Authorities overwhelmed by appeals for aid
Print Edition
HUNGRY and desperate villagers rushed toward relief helicopters in remote areas of Nepal yesterday, begging to be airlifted to safety, four days after a monster earthquake killed more than 5,000 people.
“The ground keeps shaking, even this morning it did. Every time it feels like we will be swallowed, that we will die now. I want to get out of here,” said Sita Gurung, 24, whose home had been wrecked.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said the death toll could reach 10,000, as information of damage from far-flung villages and towns has yet to come in.
Getting help to remote areas was a “major challenge,” he said, as aid finally began reaching areas that had to fend for themselves since Saturday’s magnitude-8.1 quake.
Koirala yesterday declared three days of national mourning for the 5,057 people known to have perished in Nepal alone.
“In memory of the Nepali and foreign brothers and sisters and elders and children who have lost their lives in this devastating earthquake, we have decided to observe three days of national mourning from today,” he said in a televised address.
More than 100 people died in neighboring countries such as India and China.
About 8,000 people were hurt in the disaster, while the United Nations estimated that 8 million people had been affected.
Among the dead were 18 climbers, including two Americans, an Australian and a Chinese, who were at Mount Everest base camp when an avalanche triggered by the quake flattened everything in its path.
Countries far and wide have joined the relief effort in what is one of Asia’s poorest countries, with neighboring India playing a leading role.
In Gorkha, one of the worst-hit districts, terrified residents ran with outstretched arms toward an Indian army helicopter to plead for food and water.
A journalist on board saw scores of houses across several villages in the district turned into twisted mounds of wood and corrugated tin roofs.
“We haven’t had any food here since the earthquake. Everything has changed, we don’t have anything left,” Gurung said, gesturing toward what was left of her home in the village of Lapu.
An army officer lifted her onto a stretcher and carried her away.
Military planes from numerous countries, including the United States, China and Israel, have joined the rescue effort.
Koirala told an emergency all-party meeting that the government is sending desperately needed tents, water and food supplies to those in need.
But the authorities are overwhelmed by appeals for help from remote Himalayan villages, he said.
“Appeals for rescues are coming in from everywhere,” a statement from Koirala’s office quoted him as saying.
“But we have been unable to initiate rescue efforts in many areas at the same time due to lack of equipment and rescue experts.”
Jagdish Chandra Pokherel, a Nepal Army spokesman, said: “The terrain is such that very remote areas take a very long time to reach, and without being there physically we won’t be able to reach them, help them, rescue them. Our troops are trying their best.”
In a sign of how difficult conditions are, Nepalese official Uddav Prasad Bhattarai said 250 people were feared missing after an avalanche yesterday on the popular Langtang trekking route.
With fears rising of food and water shortages, Nepalis were rushing to stores and petrol stations to stock up on essential supplies in the capital city of Kathmandu.
Nepal has declared a state of emergency after the disaster, its deadliest in more than 80 years.
A further 73 people died in India. The toll in China’s far western region of Tibet, which borders Nepal, rose to 25, Xinhua news agency said.
Families who work in Kathmandu were packing onto buses — some even sitting on the roofs — in an exodus from the city. Those who remained were sleeping outdoors in tents in parks and other open spaces.
Many had lost their houses, others were too terrified to return home after several powerful aftershocks.
With just plastic sheets to protect them, many were desperate for aid and information on what to do next.
“We’ve been staying here for three days, living under canvas. We’re counting every bite we eat, every drop we drink,” said 28-year-old housewife Rama Shrestha, who was camping out with her 5-year-old son.
“And now on top of everything, it is raining. What can we do? Where can we go? We are too scared to return home.”
Hospitals have been overwhelmed, with morgues overflowing and medics working flat out to cope with an endless stream of victims.
The United Nations said yesterday it was releasing US$15 million from its emergency fund to help relief efforts while the World Food Programme said it aimed to get food aid to 1.4 million people over the next three months.
Australia said it was raising its aid to US$4.7 million and sending a military plane to bring in relief supplies and evacuate stranded citizens.
But lack of space at the only international airport was hampering relief efforts.
Nepal and the Himalayas, where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates collide, are particularly prone to earthquakes.
A magnitude 6.8 quake hit eastern Nepal in 1988 killing 721 people, and a magnitude 8.1 quake killed 10,700 people in Nepal and India in 1934.
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