Nearly 2,000 die in Nepal quake

KATHMANDU, Nepal – The most powerful earthquake to hit Nepal in more than eight decades roared across the impoverished mountain kingdom just before noon Saturday, killing nearly 2,000 people, some as far away as India and Bangladesh, and devastating a crowded base camp at Mount Everest.

Signature buildings collapsed in the ancient Old Kathmandu quarter of the capital, including the Dharahara Tower, a 200-foot-tall structure built in 1832. Emergency response officials said at least 60 tourists were buried under rubble while visiting the popular site at the busiest time of day. Other historic buildings in Kathmandu Valley’s UNESCO-designated heritage sites were also damaged or destroyed by the magnitude-7.8 temblor, including Patan Durbar Square.

“Responders are trying to dig people out,” said Prajana W. Pradham of the CARE relief agency. “This quake was so big.”

Officials warned that the death toll was likely to increase dramatically, perhaps to as many as 10,000, as emergency response crews reach more remote areas of the country of 28 million.

On Saturday evening, Kathmandu, a city of 1 million, was turned into a teeming tent community where survivors dragged their mattresses to sleep outdoors, fearful that dozens of aftershocks would bring down damaged homes and bury them.

“We don’t want to go home now with so many aftershocks through the day, and even just now it is too risky to stay indoors,” said Sakila Gurng, a resident of the densely populated New Baneshwor neighborhood who was camping at a school.

The tens of thousands who spent the night under a chilly sky were jolted awake today by strong aftershocks.

A light rain fell in the early hours today, adding to the discomfort of the hordes of displaced Kathmandu residents but appearing to have little immediate effect on relief operations already complicated by the widespread rubble.

The quake struck at the height of the Himalayan climbing season, when foreign visitors flock to the capital and the world’s tallest mountain.

In addition to the dead in Nepal, at least 60 were reported killed in India, five in the Chinese territory of Tibet and four in Bangladesh. Television and Internet services were disrupted and phone and electricity lines were down.

The U.S. Geological Survey said its models indicated damage could amount to as much as half of Nepal’s gross domestic product, one of the lowest per capita in the world. Within hours, aid began pouring in – as soon as Nepal’s sole international airport reopened after a closure prompted by communications outages and concern that the runway may have been damaged.

Nepal Republic Media, a private news outlet in the country, said an Indian air force C-130 plane carrying 40 rescue and medical personnel had arrived in Kathmandu along with 3 tons of supplies. Three other aircraft were also being sent from India, Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said on Indian television. One was carrying a mobile hospital.

Secretary of State John Kerry sent condolences Saturday on behalf of the United States to “all of those affected by today’s earthquake in Nepal.”

Washington was sending a disaster assistance response team to Kathmandu and the U.S. Embassy was immediately releasing $1 million in initial humanitarian assistance, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said.

The Nepalese government announced that all foreign relief personnel would be issued free visas upon arrival in the country.

Nongovernment organizations issued urgent appeals for money and volunteers to help treat the thousands injured in the disaster that also rendered many of the country’s medical facilities inoperable and probably contaminated Kathmandu’s water system.

“Bandages, antiseptic creams, alcohol pads, antibacterial hand sanitizer, plastic bags, sanitary napkins and water-purification tablets. It is vital that we deliver these items as quickly as possible!” said an appeal from NFCC International.

Kathmandu was a panorama of destruction, with toppled utility poles, collapsed walls, churned-up asphalt and debris from crushed houses sprawled across the landscape.

Many structures in Nepal are made of unreinforced brick or crushed stone, and scores of people were injured in the quake by sharp objects sent flying from collapsing buildings. Clouds of dust swirled around the panicked exodus as walls were shaken into rubble by the quake.

The aftershocks that sent almost the entire population of the capital out of doors also prompted evacuation of its hospitals. Patients in pajamas could be seen sitting on mattresses that had been carried out to parking lots along with intravenous drips to which many were tethered.

Kathmandu was in “near total darkness” by 9:30 p.m., said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times.

Fallen walls blocked some of the capital’s narrow streets, further hampering the city’s overwhelmed emergency crews, said Santosh Sharma, an emergency response coordinator with CARE. He said he rushed to help two people trapped in rubble at a nearby home.

“Their house is completely collapsed,” Sharma said. “They had bad wounds and were bleeding. We took them to the nearest health center where they got first aid.”

Pramod Bhagat said he set up a sleeping area outside his home where he spent the night with cookies, iced tea and a Kindle to take his mind off the tragedy. He said he wore a bike helmet all night to protect himself from debris that continued to fly around from aftershocks.

Kathmandu was quiet by midnight, save for the sound of barking dogs and the occasional chants of “Ayo! Ayo!” (“It’s come! It’s come!”) as neighbors shouted to one another at the onset of each aftershock, said Rupa Joshi, communications specialist for UNICEF in Nepal.

At nightfall in Thamel, a tourist district of the capital popular with counterculture travelers since the hippie movement of the 1960s, backpackers could be seen walking in droves in search of a place to pitch their tents for the night.

The quake was centered 48 miles northwest of Kathmandu. It was most severely felt in the capital as well as the densely populated Katmandu Valley, but it also shook several cities across northern India, and was felt as far away as Lahore in Pakistan, Lhasa in Tibet and Dhaka in Bangladesh.

Officials said the quake occurred at a depth of only 7 miles, which is considered shallow in geological terms. The shallower the quake the more destructive power it carries, and witnesses said the trembling and swaying of the earth went on for several minutes.

A magnitude-6.6 aftershock hit about an hour later, and at least 20 other aftershocks followed the huge temblor.

The quake was the same magnitude as the one that devastated San Francisco in 1906.

In January 1934, an 8.2-quake rumbled across Nepal, killing an estimated 10,000 people there and more than 7,000 in India. Large swaths of Katmandu were destroyed back then.

Although the extent of the damage and the scale of the current disaster are yet to be ascertained, the quake will probably put a huge strain on the resources of this poor country best known for Everest. The economy of Nepal is heavily dependent on tourism, principally trekking and Himalayan mountain climbing.

The quake-induced avalanche followed by just more than a year a disastrous April 18 avalanche in which 16 Sherpa guides died.