Nepal | Relief effort faces renewed challenges; US helicopter missing

A Nepalese woman injured in Tuesday’s earthquake is comforted by her relative after she is brought from Charikot, Dolakha District, at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu

Officials with bullhorns walked through the quake-damaged streets of this small Nepal town yesterday, calling for people to leave buildings in danger of falling after a second major earthquake in less than three weeks.
The evacuation orders came a day after Nepal, just beginning to rebuild after the devastating April 25 temblor, was hit by a magnitude-7.3 quake. Tuesday’s earthquake killed at least 65 people, injured nearly 2,000 and caused landslides that blocked roads and slowed the delivery of relief supplies.
Jamie McGoldrick, a U.N. official in Nepal, said the earthquake had aggravated problems in the areas hit by the earlier temblor.
“Damaged houses were further damaged or destroyed. Houses and schools building spared before were affected yesterday, roads were damaged,” he said yesterday.
Among 14 quake-hit districts, some are very inaccessible. A large part of population could not be reached easily as roads have been damaged by the earthquake.
“Some are even difficult to reach by helicopter. We are facing monumental challenge here to support the government in these districts to have credible response,” he said.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers was reported missing while delivering disaster aid Tuesday in the country’s northeast, U.S. officials said, although there have been no indications the aircraft crashed.
Home ministry official Laxmi Dhakal said yesterday that army helicopters were scouring the Sunkhani area, nearly 80 kilometers northeast of Kathmandu, for the missing helicopter.
The quake struck hardest in the foothills of the Himalayas. Most of the 65 people confirmed dead by yesterday afternoon were in Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu, said the district’s chief administrator, Prem Lal Lamichane.
“People are terrorized. Everyone is scared here. They spent the night out in the open,” Lamichane said, adding the administration was running out of relief material.
He asked the government to send more helicopters and supplies, and said there were many injured people stranded in villages.
Tuesday’s quake also left nearly 2,000 injured, according to the Home Ministry’s latest count. But that toll was expected to rise as reports trickled in from isolated Himalayan towns and villages. Tuesday’s quake also killed 16 in northern India, and one person in Tibet. Beernat Armangue, Chautara, AP