Nepal earthquake: Everest survivors describe ordeal

4 hours ago
 From the section Asia

Nepal quake

Nepal quake 'followed historic pattern'
Nepal's architectural jewels destroyed
In pictures: Nepal overwhelmed by quake
Nepal quake: 'I was so frightened'
Survivors of avalanches around the base of Mount Everest have been describing their ordeals as avalanches triggered by Nepal's earthquake on Saturday almost swept them away.
Several said they felt lucky to be alive, and admitted that they would not return to the mountain for a long time. At least 17 people died and more than 60 were injured.
Aftershocks on Sunday again spread fear among those left in the area.
One man said he was knocked off his feet by a "50-storey building of white".
"I ran and it just flattened me. I tried to get up and it flattened me again. I couldn't breathe, I thought I was dead," Singapore-based climber George Foulsham told AFP news agency.
"When I finally stood up, I couldn't believe it passed me over and I was almost untouched."

Injured people are being airlifted from the Everest camps
Media caption
Mountaineer Arjun Vajpal at Mount Makalu base camp: "We just felt fresh tremors"
British honeymoon couple Alex Chappatte and husband Sam Schneider had just arrived at Camp 1, completing the first stage in the climb up Everest, when the earthquake hit.
"The ground started shaking violently but before we could react [Summit Climb group leader] Dan was shouting "Get out of your... tents, grab your ice axes!" Ms Chappatte wrote in her blog.
"We staggered out to see an avalanche coming straight at us. A blast of wind knocked us down but we were able to get up and run to shelter behind some tents and anchor ourselves with our axes.
She added that they were able to dig their tents out of the snow as they were only lightly covered with snow, and move to a safer place.
Ms Chappatte's post ended on an upbeat note, describing "glorious sunshine" and "incredible" views of the summit on Sunday morning.
"We've got food and the sherpas are being amazing. We're OK," she wrote.

Mount Everest
First successful ascent was by New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953
More than 4,000 people have scaled the summit since then
Hundreds of people attempt to climb Everest every year - 658 people made the summit in 2013
More than 200 people have died trying to climb Everest
Special Report: Climbing Everest

But aftershocks later in the day led to more fear and anxiety at the camp.
Climber Daniel Mazur tweeted: "Aftershock @ 1pm! Horrible here in camp 1. Avalanches on 3 sides. C1 a tiny island. We worry about icefall team below. Alive?"
Many of the injured have now been airlifted out of Base Camp, but others were not so fortunate.
US climber and cardiologist Ellen Gallant told AFP how she had worked to save those hurt in the avalanches but one young Nepali man died in front of her.
Media caption
This is the worst disaster to happen on the mountain
"Of the nine patients, one of them died last night - a 25-year-old sherpa. His blood pressure had fallen - there was nothing we could do."
"When you go to medical school, you learn to focus on the task at hand. But now that things have settled down, it's hit me hard. That young man... shouldn't have to die."
The avalanches have left some survivors wondering about the future of the climb. Just a year ago the deadliest avalanche in Everest's history until then had left 16 sherpas dead.
Nepali cook Kanchaman Tamang said he had reassured his family after last year that he would be safe at Base Camp.
"The season is over - the route has been destroyed, icefall ladders are broken," he told AFP.
"I don't think I will come back next year - this mountain means too much pain."
Mr Foulsham suggested that his dream of climbing Everest might now be over.
"I saved for years to climb Everest [but] it feels like the mountain is saying it's not meant to be climbed for now," he said.
"It's too much of a coincidence to see this twice in two years."

Nepal earthquake: Rescue effort intensifies

16 minutes ago
 From the section Asia
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Media caption
The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder says tent cities are springing up in Kathmandu
Nepal quake

Everest survivors describe ordeal
Nepal quake 'followed historic pattern'
Nepal's architectural jewels destroyed
In pictures: Nepal overwhelmed by quake
Relief efforts in Nepal are intensifying after more than 2,300 people were killed in the worst earthquake there in more than 80 years.
Rescue missions and aid material have started arriving in the country.
Seventeen people have been killed on Mt Everest by avalanches - the mountain's worst-ever disaster.
Meanwhile a powerful aftershock was felt on Sunday in Nepal, India and Bangladesh, and more avalanches were reported near Everest.
The 6.7-magnitude tremor, centred 60km (40 miles) east of Nepal's capital Kathmandu, sent people running in panic for open ground in the city.


At the scene: By Surendra Phuyal, BBC News, Kathmandu
As military helicopters hovered over Kathmandu and ferried relief supplies to victims of the earthquake in western Nepal, search and rescue efforts were going on in at least five locations in Kathmandu.
Near the prime minister's official residence, two bulldozers scoured the rubble of a flattened four-storey house.
A bystander said it was the local tax office. The bodies of the four staff inside had been recovered minutes before.
As the search and road-clearing efforts got under way at noon, a major aftershock sent people into a panic again.
At a nearby open space, people were camped out fearing further tremors. They were short of food and water - clearly hoping and praying that the aftershocks would stop and things would be normal soon.

The death toll from the original earthquake on Saturday could rise, as the situation is unclear in remote areas which remain cut off or hard to access.
Many mountain roads are cracked or blocked by landslides.
Scores of bodies have been ferried to hospitals in Kathmandu, many of which are struggling to cope with the number of injured.
More than 700 have died in the capital alone.

Helicopters have begun ferrying injured people out of Everest Base Camp

Tents have been set up in a parade ground in the city centre to house thousands of people displaced by the earthquake.
Medics are expecting a fresh influx of patients on Sunday as supplies run low.
Rescuers used their bare hands in places to dig for survivors still buried underneath piles of rubble and debris overnight on Saturday.
Army officer Santosh Nepal told the Reuters news agency that he and his soldiers had to dig a passage into a collapsed three-storey residential building in Kathmandu using pickaxes because bulldozers could not get through the ancient city's narrow streets.
"We believe there are still people trapped inside," he told Reuters.
The 7.8-magnitude quake struck an area of central Nepal between Kathmandu and the city of Pokhara on Saturday morning.
There were also victims in India, Bangladesh and in the Chinese region of Tibet.
It is the worst earthquake in Nepal since 1934, when some 8,500 people were killed.

Analysis - BBC Science correspondent Jonathan Amos
Large quakes are generally followed by a flurry of aftershocks, which tend to reduce in strength and frequency as time goes on.
As a rule of thumb, seismologists might expect to see at least one aftershock that measures roughly a magnitude less than the main shock. One of these, with a Magnitude of 6.6, was seen just half an hour after Saturday's main 7.8 event. Sunday has now experienced a further big aftershock of 6.7. From the early data, the tremor looks to have originated closer to the surface than Saturday's big shakers.
Although each step down on the magnitude scale is a 30-times drop in the energy released, Sunday's big aftershock will not have felt like that for those on the ground. And, of course, it may have toppled many already severely damaged buildings, adding to the difficulties of the rescue operation.
Nepal's architectural jewels destroyed
Why Nepal is so vulnerable to quakes
Challenges of Nepal's quake relief operation

'Moment of crisis'
"We have launched a massive rescue and rehabilitation action plan and lots needs to be done," Information and Broadcasting Minister Minendra Rijal told Indian television.
"Our country is in a moment of crisis and we will require tremendous support and aid."

The rescue effort began in earnest in Kathmandu on Sunday morning
.

There are fears the death toll could rise yet further

Aid - such as this material from Sri Lanka - has gradually started to arrive in Nepal

Historic buildings were badly damaged in the quake
Scores of people slept outside on Saturday night - braving wet and cold weather - either because their homes were destroyed or because they feared numerous aftershocks.
World leaders and global charities have offered emergency aid to Nepal, as the government grapples with the scale of the disaster.
India is at the forefront of the relief effort, offering help including helicopters which have been deployed to remote areas.

The historic city of Bhaktapur in the Kathmandu valley was also badly damaged

An avalanche was captured on camera moments before it descended on Everest Base Camp
The United States, Britain, China, Pakistan and European Union countries are among those who have pledged aid.
A number of international charities including Red Cross, Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders and Christian Aid are also sending teams to quake-hit areas.
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Media caption
Nepal earthquake thunderstorms
The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was especially worried about the fate of villages near the epicentre of the quake, some 80km (50 miles) from Kathmandu.
'Rubble and landslides'
The problems have been compounded by erratic internet and mobile phone communications.
British Red Cross spokeswoman Penny Sims said it was hard to get an accurate picture of what is going on.
"A lot of the roads are blocked, there's rubble, there's been landslides as well... So that is going to make the aid effort very difficult," she told the BBC.

People slept outside in Kathmandu on Saturday either because their homes were destroyed or because they feared aftershocks

People clear rubble in Kathmandu's Durbar Square
Foreign climbers and their Nepalese guides around Mt Everest were caught by the tremors and a huge avalanche.
As well as the 17 confirmed deaths, 61 people were injured when part of the base camp was buried under snow.
Helicopters trying to airlift the injured to Kathmandu were delayed by cloudy weather, but have now managed to rescue most of them.
Dan Fredinburg, a Google executive who described himself as an adventurer, was among the dead, Google confirmed.

10 killed, 51 injured as vehicles collide.

Rescue efforts under way following yesterday afternoon�s road accident in Shinyanga Region in which ten people died and 51 were injured. (Photo: Correspondent Suzan Ditrick)
 At least 10 people died on the spot and 51 were seriously injured when two vehicles collided at Samuye village, Shinyanga Region, yesterday afternoon.

Shinyanga Regional Police Commander Justus Kamugisha said the accident occurred after a commuter bus was involved in a collision with a truck-with-a-trailer.

He said that the crash involved a Scania-make bus christened Unique with registration number T148 BKK heading to Tabora from Mwanza  and a trailer with registration number  T635 AJT on the Shinyanga-Nzega road.

“Ten people have lost their lives and 51 have sustained serious injuries and have been taken to Shinyanga Regional Hospital,” said RPC Kamugisha.

He said further details on the casualties would be given later, but not even a single name was given by the time we went to press.
He described the incident as the “worst road accident” to have occurred in Shinyanga Region.

The hospital’s doctor-in-charge, Salum Mfaume, confirmed having received nine bodies – adding that the tenth person died while receiving treatment at the facility.

 “The total number of those who have died is ten, while 51 people are being attended to in the hospital,” said Dr Mfaume.
Records show that this is the tenth accident reported in Tanzania within 42 days, with the toll standing at 150 people killed and dozens injured.

On April 17, a total of 39 people died in two accidents including 20 gold miners buried alive in Kahama District, Shinyanga Region.

Of those killed in road crashes, 19 died on the spot at Kiwira, Mbeya, when their vehicle – a Toyota Hiace with registration number T 290 ABU – veered off the road and fell into a river in Rungwe District.

Mbeya RPC Ahmed Msangi confirmed the incident, blaming it on speeding.

 At least 100 people died and 138 were injured in road accidents in the country between March 11 and April 12 this year.

Police sources maintain that the rate of road accidents can be contained if members of the public cooperate with traffic police officers and other authorities, including by observing traffic regulations and reporting offenders.