Reports
are that it is starting to rain in Kathmandu
From Kunda
Dixit We
urgently need tents and medicines, please tell the
world.”
#NepalQuake
@omastharai @nepalitimes
#NepalQuake
@omastharai @nepalitimes
Nepal:
Second night in the open
Rescue
workers dig out more bodies from under the debris of the devastated
Budget Hotel building in Thamel on Sunday. Photo by Om Astha Rai
Nepal
Times,
28
April, 2015
Hundreds
of thousands of people in Central Nepal prepared to spend the second
night out in the open as serious aftershocks continued to rattle
people and forcing them out of their homes.
In
Kathmandu, open areas like Tundikhel, Khula Manch, Dasrath Stadium
and Maitighar Mandala were packed with families afraid of going home.
They used any open spaces available, including school playgrounds,
courtyards and bahals of inner city areas. Some people even used
traffic islands.
People
who had hoped that the aftershocks had begun to taper off were
jolted once more on Sunday at 1PM with a 6.5 magnitude
earthquake epicentred northeast of Kathmandu which shook places as
far away as Patna in India and towns in Bangladesh. Some families who
had ventured home decided to stay out one more night in tents.
In
Makhan Tole behind the devastated World Heritage Site of Kathmandu
Darbar Square, people scared by the aftershock wept as they found out
that there was nowhere they could spend the night.
“In
our locality, people are frightened as their houses are old and
already weakened by yesterday’s earthquake,” said Sanu Maharjan,
a volunteer mobilised by Makhan Youth Club, before rushing out to
pull bodies from under the debris of a house that collapsed on
Sunday’s quake.
“More
houses are collapsing because of the aftershocks, it is scary,” he
said.
Prime
Minister Sushil Koirala returned to Kathmandu on Sunday from Jakarta
where he had gone for a conference and immediately convened a Cabinet
meeting which warned people not to follow rumours but to be prepared
for aftershocks.
Sunday’s
aftershock razed houses that were damaged on Saturday’s quake and
even killed some people in districts surrounding Kathmandu. The
official death toll is now nearing 2,000 and is expected to go higher
as reports come in from outlying areas of Central Nepal.
At
Kathmandu’s Bir Hospital the corridors are littered with
unidentified bodies, and the police was handing over identified ones
to next-of-kin.
Hospital
Director, Swoyam Prakash Pandit, said as of Sunday afternoon, 99
people, including one Chinese and two Indian, had died after being
brought there. Some 450 more wounded people have been admitted, and
Pandit expected more as people trapped under rubble are rescued.
Thousands
of army, armed police and Nepali police personnel have been deployed
to rescue earthquake victims. But they are incapable of removing
debris in narrow alleys of Kathmandu.
On
Sunday, near Asan chowk, a team of policemen was unable to remove
debris because they had no digging equipment. “We know many are
trapped inside but we don’t know how to pull them out,” said a
police inspector. “It can be done only by our disaster rescue teams
but they are too few to reach everywhere.”
In
the Patan Darbar Square which has also been devastated by the
earthquake, families sat calmly in shelters inside schools and open
spaces. Community organizer, Dilendra Raj Shrestha told us there was
no presence of government, not even officials from the municipality
who had visited.
“We
urgently need tents and medicines,” he said, recalling the
hardships of Saturday night when about 400 people slept in the open
and were drenched by a shower at 1AM. Fortunately the a400-year-old
stone spout in the square outside provides water, and the community
raises money to cook two meals a day.
He
said: “Please tell the world. We need help.”
Om
Astha Rai
MSF sending teams to Nepal to assist earthquake victims
The
international medical humanitarian medical organization Médecins
Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is sending four
teams of medical and logistical staff to Nepal to assist those
affected by the Earthquake.
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