Three rescued eight days after Nepal quake

Tuesday, 5 May 2015 01:09 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Reuters: Three people were pulled alive from the rubble of their home eight days after Nepal’s devastating earthquake, as a supply logjam threatened to hamper disaster relief efforts bolstered by the arrival of US aircraft and troops. The small-scale rescue, announced on Sunday by a home ministry official, brought fresh hope to a badly-hit district northeast of the capital Kathmandu, but about 50 bodies were also discovered on a northern trekking route obliterated by an avalanche that the April 25 quake triggered. That increased the death toll to 7,059, and the figure was likely to rise further as an entire village was carried away by the same avalanche and scores more people - both locals and foreign trekkers - were missing, officials said. US military aircraft and personnel were due to begin helping ferry relief supplies to stricken areas outside the capital, a US Marines spokeswoman said, after arriving in Nepal on Sunday, a day later than expected.

Meanwhile United Nations Resident Representative Jamie McGoldrick said the government needed to loosen its normal customs restrictions, as criticism mounted over a pile-up of aid at Kathmandu airport, Nepal’s only international gateway. With many Nepalis sleeping in the open since the quake, afraid of returning to their homes because of powerful aftershocks, the government lifted import taxes on tarpaulins and tents on Friday. According to the United Nations, 600,000 houses have been destroyed or damaged, and tents have been pitched in Kathmandu’s main sports stadium and on its golf course. Government officials have said efforts to step up the pace of delivery of relief material to remote areas were also frustrated by a shortage of supply trucks and drivers, many of whom had returned to their villages to help their families. The United Nations said eight million of Nepal’s 28 million people were affected, with at least two million needing tents, water, food and medicines over the next three months.

About 100 bodies found in Nepal trekking village

Reuters: Nepali police and local volunteers found the bodies of about 100 trekkers and villagers buried in an avalanche set off by last month’s devastating earthquake and were digging through snow and ice for signs of dozens more missing, officials said on Monday. The bodies were recovered on Saturday and Sunday at the Langtang village, 60 kilometres north of Kathmandu, which is on a trekking route popular with Westerners. The entire village, which includes 55 guesthouses for trekkers, was wiped out by the avalanche, officials said. “Local volunteers and police personnel are digging through six-feet deep snow with shovels looking for more bodies,” said Gautam Rimal, Assistant Chief District Officer in the area where Langtang is located. The dead include at least seven foreigners but only two had been identified, he said. It was not clear how many people were in Langtang at the time of the avalanche but other officials said about 120 more people could be buried under the snow. “We had not been able to reach the area earlier because of rains and cloudy weather,” Uddhav Bhattarai, the district’s senior bureaucrat, said by telephone on Sunday. The 25 April earthquake has killed 7,276 people and wounded over 14,300, Nepal’s government said.