Nepal earthquake death toll exceeds 6,000 with thousands unaccounted for
Thousands of villages devastated and up to 90% of clinics and schools in some districts unusable, as Kathmandu appealing for help from international donors
Friday 1 May 2015 13.19 reported by Jason Burke and and Ishwar Rauniyar in Kathmandu
The death toll from the earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday has passed 6,000, and many thousands are still unaccounted for.
The latest police report has confirmed 6,260 fatalities, with about 14,000 injured and thousands still unaccounted for. The head of the European Union delegation in the country said 1,000 people from the EU were missing and 12 were confirmed dead.
Although Nepal celebrated the rescue of two people pulled alive from the wreckage of buildings in the capital, Kathmandu, on Thursday, the sheer extent of the destruction of the 7.8-magnitude quake is becoming clear.
Thousands of villages have been devastated, with up to 90% of clinics and schools in some districts rendered unusable.
Ram Sharan Mahat, the Nepalese finance minister, said at least $2bn (£1.3bn) would be needed to rebuild homes, hospitals, government offices and historic buildings.
“This is just an initial estimate and it will take time to assess the extent of damage and calculate the cost of rebuilding,” said Mahat, as he appealed for help from international donors.
Other estimates have been higher. A large number of ancient monuments and important cultural buildings will also need to be restored, if they are not demolished. Palaces in Kathmandu have been damaged and cracked.
Hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by the quake were yet to receive aid because of logistic bottlenecks, poor infrastructure and a chaotic government response.
At least 3,000 people were still unaccounted for in the badly hit Sindhupalchowk district, while little is known about northern areas of the Gorkha district where about 10,000 live. Local officials fear widespread destruction.
A local religious leader who had flown over the zone said people there were living in appalling conditions.
“There are still injured there who have not been treated. Whole villages are flattened. They need tents very badly,” said Kempo Chimed Tsering.
“Dozens of people have been visiting the district administration office demanding food, water and tents,” said the deputy chief district officer of Sindhupalchowk district, Bharat Acharya. “We are trying to reach to most affected areas as per the availabilities of resources.”
But in Chhatrepati, a village 16 miles (26km) west of Kathmandu in Dhading district, residents were angry that aid that had not yet reach them. Of 47 houses, none is now habitable. While tents have been provided to those with deceased relatives, other survivors have been left without support.
“You are the first one to come here. Neither the government nor any aid agencies have looked after us,” said Mohan Bahadur Thapa, 48, yelling with anger.
“We are cooking food in this open space for at least 23 people of my family,” he added. “If they can’t give us any support they could have come and at least ask and see how we are living.”
Gopindra Lal Shrestha, 42, is living outside with his six relatives. “The government is getting lots of money, but where has it gone?” he said. “See, I cannot even go inside the house to take out anything.”
His wife, Nabina Shrestha, 40, said: “My children clothes are buried inside – it’s been six days, they haven’t got chance to change their clothes ... It seems the drinking water is also contaminated, as it has become yellow, but we are forced to drink that.”
In the ruins of a collapsed house, two brothers, Purna Shrestha, 32, and Manoj Shrestha, 26, were trying to dig out their buried belongings. They managed to recover some utensils, some maize and a photograph of their father. “My dad died two years back and now my mother is gone and we are left in pain,” said Manoj.
“I lost my wife and mother,” said Purna, pointing towards the rubble. “My wife was trapped in the left side of house and mother in the right side.”
His baby survived the quake. But now Shrestha is left with the pressure of how to feed and look after the infant in the aftermath of the disaster. “I am worried about my six-month-old son. How will I rear and care for him, as the baby lost his both mother and grandmother?” he said.
EU ambassador Rensje Teerink said the unaccounted Europeans were mostly tourists in the Langtang and Lukla areas. Langtang is a trekking region to the north of Kathmandu that has been hit by a huge avalanche and mudslides, while Lukla is the jumping off point for walkers and climbers making the nine-day trek to Everest base camp.
Diplomats are finding it hard to trace the missing because many backpackers do not register with their embassies when they arrive in the country.
Kathmandu is slowly returning to normal with power supplies and communication networks restored to most of the city.
“I think it’s over now. I feel safe now,” said Vivek Ksimdung, 20, a student in the city.
However, many remain terrified of another tremor. Police have arrested two men for spreading rumours that a second major earthquake had been predicted. They will be charged with “inciting panic among the public”.
On Thursday night watching crowds cheered as Nepalese rescuers, assisted by a US disaster team, pulled a 15-year-old boy from the debris of a seven-storey structure. He had reportedly stayed alive by eating jars of ghee and drinking water dripping from his clothes.
Just streets away, rescuers worked into the night to free a woman from the rubble of a hotel.
The dust-covered teenager, who had been trapped in a small gap behind a bike under 6.5ft (two metres) of rubble, was eventually lifted blinking into the sunlight and placed on a stretcher, with a blue brace around his neck and a drip in his arm.
“All of the sudden I saw light,” said the teenager, named variously in reports as Pemba Tamang and Pemba Lama, after he was rescued. He did not know whether he was alive or dead. “I thought I was hallucinating,” AP reported him as saying.
Libby Weiss, from an Israeli military-run medical centre, said the boy was doing well and did not appear to have any major injuries.
“I don’t have any logical explanation. It is miraculous. It is a wonderful thing to see in all this destruction,” she said. “He was under the rubble for 120 hours and it is certainly the longest we have heard anybody of being under the rubble and surviving.”
The second survivor was carried by stretcher to a waiting ambulance after Nepalese soldiers and a huge team of experts from France, Norway and Israel worked to rescue her.
“She was injured but she was conscious and talking,” a Nepalese army major said.
“She has been sent to a military hospital,” he said, identifying the woman to AFP as Krishna Devi Khadka, a kitchen worker in her mid-30s. “It is as though she had been born again.”
However, such stories remain rare after the “great quake”, as local media have called it.
Officials said Pemba had been talking to two other people trapped in the rubble until early Thursday, but they had gone silent. The body of a teenager was removed soon afterwards.
Emergency teams have mainly been pulling bodies from the rubble, a task made all the more perilous by more than 70 aftershocks, the strongest measuring 6.9 magnitude, the Indian meteorological department in Delhi said.
Rain has left many people with the dilemma of risking a return to damaged homes which could collapse in an aftershock or sleeping in tents or other temporary shelters.
Large numbers have left Kathmandu on free buses provided by the government, often to check on relatives in other regions.
The weather has cleared over much of the country, allowing rescue and relief missions to be stepped up. Much of the famous Khumbu valley, around Everest, had been cut off by bad weather for several days. Flights have now resumed.
The British and Chinese governments have said they are sending additional helicopters, and on Thursday, a group of Gurkhas serving in the British army arrived in the capital to lend a hand with the recovery. The soldiers from the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers Unit set up a portable water purification unit on the grounds of what used to a royal palace in Kathmandu.
Anger about the slow pace of the rescue flared earlier in the week with protests outside the Nepalese parliament.
The official death toll does not include the 19 people killed on Mount Everest – five foreign climbers and 14 Nepalese sherpas – when the quake caused an avalanche at base camp on the world’s highest peak.
The UN has launched an appeal for $415m (£270m) and Nepal is appealing to foreign governments for more helicopters.
There are widespread fears of disease in remote areas and in Kathmandu. One pharmacist in the Lalitpur area of Kathmandu immediately sold his entire stock of anti-diarrhoea medicine and oral rehydration salts.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/01/nepal-earthquake-death-toll-passes-6000-with-thousands-still-missing
Structure of the Lead:
Who - The victim - Gopindra Lal Shrestha, 42, is living outside with his six relatives.
The victim - Purna Shrestha, 32, and Manoj Shrestha,26
The victim - Vivek Ksimdung, 20, a studen.
When - April 25.2015
What - Nepal earthquake and heartfelt wishes of victims
Why - The destruction of the 7.8-magnitude quake
How - The latest police report has confirmed 6,260 fatalities, with about 14,000 injured and thousands still unaccounted for.
Keywords:
1. unaccounted : 未說明的，未加解釋的
2. fatality : （因意外事故的）死亡；死者
3. delegation : 委任，授權
4. demolish : 毀壞，破壞
5. bottleneck : 瓶頸
6. infrastructure : 公共建設
7. administration : 管理，經營
8. diplomat : 外交官
9. military : 軍事的
10. parliament : 議會，國會
