MAY 13, 2015
CHARIKOT, NEPAL
Hundreds of Nepali troops were searching for a missing U.S.
Marines helicopter with eight people on board on Wednesday, a day after the
second powerful earthquake in less than three weeks killed scores and sent
panicked residents into the street.
The Himalayan nation is still reeling from a devastating
quake measuring 7.8 last month that killed more than 8,000 people and injured
close to 20,000.
The U.S. helicopter was delivering aid in Dolakha, one of
the hardest-hit areas from the April 25 quake, on Tuesday when it went missing
with six Marines and two Nepali troops on board.
The Marine Corps UH-1Y Huey helicopter lost radio contact
after its crew was heard talking about fuel problems.
A Nepali military official said it appeared the helicopter
might have come down in one of the rivers that snake through valleys in the
district of Dolakha east of the capital, Kathmandu. Six other helicopters
joined hundreds of ground troops in the search for the missing aircraft.
"The info we have is that it is down in one of the
rivers, but none of the choppers has seen it yet," Major Rajan Dahal,
second-in-command of the Barda Bahadur Battalion, told Reuters in the district
capital, Charikot.
"There are 400-plus of our ground troops looking for it
also. By this evening, we might get it," he said.
Nepal Home Ministry official Laxmi Prasad Dhal said no trace
of the missing helicopter had been found but she feared the search was
diverting resources from relief and rescue work.
"The work of sending relief and rescuing the injured
people to hospitals has been delayed due to this," she told Reuters.
Tuesday's 7.3 quake killed 67 people and destroyed swaths of
housing in the area. Charikot, about 75 km (45 miles) east of Kathmandu, was
one of the hardest-hit areas.
Most of the fatalities reported from Tuesday's quake were in
towns and villages like Charikot, which were only just beginning to pick up the
pieces from last month's quake.
"LOOKS LIKE A GRAVEYARD"
Tuesday's quake and subsequent aftershocks forced many
panic-stricken Nepalis to spend yet another night outdoors in makeshift tents
and relief camps.
Aula Bahadur Ale, the assistant administrator of the
district, said there were 36 dead in Charikot and surrounding areas and 106
injured.
"It looks like a graveyard here," Ale said.
"Even those houses that have not been flattened have
developed cracks. People are too afraid to go into them. We are still feeling
the aftershocks that make people terrified."
A police official in Kathmandu said 1,928 people had been
injured in Tuesday's quake, which also killed 17 people in neighboring India.
The April quake destroyed hundreds of thousands of
buildings, including many ancient temples, and triggered an avalanche on Mount
Everest that killed 18 climbers and cut short the climbing season on the
world's tallest peak.
The tremors have left areas of Nepal perilously unstable,
leading to fears of more landslides, especially when seasonal monsoon rains
begin to fall in the coming weeks.
In Kathmandu, most open spaces such as private land and
pavements were occupied by residents who set up yellow, blue and white
tarpaulin sheets.
Kathmandu resident Sita Gurung said her newly built house
had escaped damage but she still did not want to go back.
"How can I take risk and stay in? Every one has come
out and is living in the open," Gurung said.
"I better join them and stay safe."
Source: Reuters.com