| StylinRed | 04-25-2015 12:48 PM |
Nepal 7.8 Quake over 1000 dead
When I heard about it earlier I only heard about some people trapped in a building, and no report on the strength of the quake so I didn't think it was a serious issue, then I flipped on the news again... Quote:
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Nepal's deadliest earthquake for more than 80 years, police say.
The 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara.
There were also victims in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and on Mount Everest, where avalanches were triggered.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas, and help has been offered by countries around the world.
Little information has emerged from the epicentre, where extensive damage has been reported, and there are fears the death toll could rise yet further.
The Nepalese information minister has told the BBC that 1,500 people had been killed in the disaster, but that the true casualty figure would probably be much higher.
Thousands of people are spending the night outside their houses, following a series of aftershocks.
| Nepal earthquake: Death toll passes 1,000 - BBC News
trapped man rescued http://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/...ACNI-jumbo.jpg
Seems like a better article http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/wo...-katmandu.html Quote:
NEW DELHI — A powerful earthquake shook Nepal on Saturday near its capital, Katmandu, killing more than 1,000 people, flattening sections of the city’s historic center and trapping dozens of sightseers in a 200-foot watchtower that came crashing down into a pile of bricks.
Officials in Nepal put the preliminary number of deaths at 1,246, nearly all of them in Katmandu and the surrounding valley, with 4,108 injured. But the quake touched a vast swath of the subcontinent. It set off avalanches around Mount Everest, where several climbers were reported to have died. At least 34 deaths occurred in northern India. Buildings swayed in Tibet and Bangladesh.
The earthquake, with an estimated magnitude of 7.8, struck shortly before noon, and residents of Katmandu ran into the streets and other open spaces as buildings fell, throwing up clouds of dust. Wide cracks opened on paved streets and in the walls of city buildings. Motorcycles tipped over on their sides and slid off the edge of a highway.
By midafternoon, the United States Geological Survey had counted 12 aftershocks, one of which measured at a magnitude of 6.6.
Seismologists have expected a major earthquake in western Nepal, where there is pent-up pressure from the grinding between tectonic plates, the northern Eurasia plate and the upthrusting Indian plate. Still, witnesses described a chaotic rescue effort during the first hours after the quake, as emergency workers and volunteers grabbed tools and bulldozers from construction sites, and dug with hacksaws, mangled rebar, and their hands.
Though many have worried about the stability of the concrete high-rises that have been hastily erected in Katmandu, the most terrible damage on Saturday was to the oldest part of the city, which is studded with temples and palaces made of wood and unmortared brick.
Four of the area’s seven Unesco World Heritage sites were severely damaged in the earthquake: Bhaktapur Durbar Square, a temple complex built in the shape of a conch shell; Patan Durbar Square, which dates to the third century; Basantapur Durbar Square, which was the residence of Nepal’s royal family until the 19th century; and the Boudhanath Stupa, one of the oldest Buddhist monuments in the Himalayas.
For many, the most breathtaking architectural loss was the nine-story Dharahara Tower, which was built in 1832 on the orders of the queen. The tower had recently reopened to the public, and visitors could ascend a narrow spiral staircase to a viewing platform around 200 feet above the city.
The walls were brick, around one and a half feet thick, and when the earthquake struck they came crashing down.
The police on Saturday said they had pulled around 60 bodies from the rubble of the tower. Kashish Das Shrestha, a photographer and writer, spent much of the day in the old city, but said he still had trouble grasping that the tower was gone.
“I was here yesterday, I was here the day before yesterday and it was there,” he said. “Today it’s just gone. Last night, from my terrace, I was looking at the tower. And today I was at the tower — and there is no tower.”
Kanak Mani Dixit, a Nepalese political commentator, said he had been having lunch with his parents when the quake struck. The rolling was so intense and sustained that he had trouble getting to his feet, he said. He helped his father and an elderly neighbor to safety in the garden outside and then had to carry his elderly mother.
“And I had time to do all that while the quake was still going on,” Mr. Dixit said. “It was like being on a boat in heavy seas.”
... more at the link
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