Kathmandu hit by 7.8 quake

Cookie_Monster

Pretty big quake has just devastated Kathmandu in Nepal. 1400 dead so far and a state or emergency has been declared bythe government.
Quate also set of avalanches on everest which hit thebase camp.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/image.cfm?c_id=2&gal_cid=2&gallery_id=149654

Scary stuff! We were hit with a 6.4 here yesterday and you would almost not notice, the difference is incredible. Thoughts are with the Nepalese people.

DEFTLEFTHAND

Horrific to read about. April and May is Everest climbing season also, so a lot of extra activity in the area.

LadyAthame

I really hope international assistance is forthcoming.

LadyAthame

I hope the world does something. Everest was exploited so well by mountaineering tourism they owe the people there.

Here is how to help.

I will pledge something myself.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-04-25/how-help-nepal-7-vetted-charities-doing-relief-work-following-earthquake
Every little helps.

Lemsiper

Am in Nepal at present. Quake was scary and intense yesterday. Meant to head for Kathmandu today but holding off until tomorrow for fear of aftershocks making roads impassable.

Recent reports of another aftershock of 4.6 at the epicentre.

Depraved

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

Scary stuff! We were hit with a 6.4 here yesterday and you would almost not notice, the difference is incredible.

The strength is measured on the MMS scale (replaced the Richter scale 45 years ago)
A an increase of one step (e.g. 4.0 --> 5.0) on this logarithmic scale corresponds to a 101.5 ≈ 32 times increase in the amount of energy released, and an increase of two steps corresponds to a 103 = 1000 times increase in energy.

Huge difference between a 6.4 & a 7.8.

snubbleste

How many western lives is a Nepali life worth?

keeponhurling

snubbleste wrote: »

How many western lives is a Nepali life worth?

Please explain

snubbleste

Well if this happened in the US, we'd have non-stop coverage and AH would have 100+ pages on it.
But shure, it only happened in Nepal..

The earthquake happened on Sat morning & AH only got a thread on at 0130..

keeponhurling

Ok, although it was the main headline on all news stations that I have
Euronews, BBC World and CNN
RTE as well

Duggy747

snubbleste wrote: »

Well if this happened in the US, we'd have non-stop coverage and AH would have 100+ pages on it.
But shure, it only happened in Nepal..

The earthquake happened on Sat morning & AH only got a thread on at 0130..

Why didn't you start one then instead of being that one person who trots out the same self-righteous stuff over and over during these types of threads?

Terrible for Nepal, so many of their landmarks and structures just fell like paper on top of those people.

murpho999

Duggy747 wrote: »

Why didn't you start one then instead of being that one person who trots out the same self-righteous stuff over and over during these types of threads?

Terrible for Nepal, so many of their landmarks and structures just fell like paper on top of those people.

Don't know the poster but I think the point is valid. This is a major disaster in terms of human life as well as historical loss but this thread is very quiet and even this morning the media focus is on one Western Google employee who was also sadly killed but his life is worth no more than others who also suffered.

I see also that Irish charities such as Concern are mobilising so it shows how serious it is.

FouxDaFaFa

Terrible to hear of that significant aftershock just as they were trying to get a handle on things. Also hearing of about 17 people who are thought to have died on Everest. That's extremely hard, especially since it's unlikely their bodies will be returned to their families.

Lemsiper wrote: »

Am in Nepal at present. Quake was scary and intense yesterday. Meant to head for Kathmandu today but holding off until tomorrow for fear of aftershocks making roads impassable.

Recent reports of another aftershock of 4.6 at the epicentre.

Stay safe. I read on a travel forum on reddit that most people slept outside last night for fear of more aftershocks.

On that thread, people were sharing memories of trips to Nepal and the people they met on their way. It was like a wake but they were grieving for a place.

Apart from the awful loss of life, this will hit Nepal's economy very hard. They rely so much on cultural tourism and hiking tourism and the infrastructure for both seem to be practically wiped out. I hope they can recover as much as possible.

snubbleste

More quakes today, up to 6.7
Death toll so far is 2,200 people in Nepal and 62 in India
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/fresh-tremors-in-north-india-including-delhi-a-day-after-nepal-earthquake-758240

Witchie

Lemsiper wrote: »

Am in Nepal at present. Quake was scary and intense yesterday. Meant to head for Kathmandu today but holding off until tomorrow for fear of aftershocks making roads impassable.

Recent reports of another aftershock of 4.6 at the epicentre.

Hope you are safe. If you happen to meet an Irish girl called Sinead NiCionna and her Canadian boyfriend Bertrand Berry, please let them use whatever you are using to communicate to let their families know. I know some of her family and they are very worried.

FTA69

This is desperate. I was in Nepal only three months ago and found it the most amazing place I have ever been. The people there are fantastic but desperately poor and I can only imagine the misery this has caused for so many. Parts of Kathmandu I visited have been completely flattened and buildings I drank tea in are in bits now. I can't help but wonder about the friendly staff and people I met in these areas.

Aside from the human cost, Nepal has also suffered irreparable damage to it's world heritage sites. The death toll is awful and so is the cultural damage something like this will cause to sites that they treasure so much.

Lemsiper

Witchie wrote: »

Hope you are safe. If you happen to meet an Irish girl called Sinead NiCionna and her Canadian boyfriend Bertrand Berry, please let them use whatever you are using to communicate to let their families know. I know some of her family and they are very worried.

Absolutely I will, I saw a post about them on Facebook.

We just had another tremor there, I don't know the magnitude though.

Making my way by bus with my girlfriend tomorrow through the mountain highway. Fingers crossed today was the end of the major activity.

snubbleste

Death toll since the quake hit at 11:56 local time Saturday
1400 1800 2200 2500

dublinman1990

Just heard via the BBC now that Unicef have said that 940,000 children are in 'urgent need' of humanitarian assistance from areas affected by the earthquakes.

That figure for the kids alone living there is just massive. Prayers to all the families of those people who were killed by the quakes. Hopeful that the death toll will not get any larger than that for the foreseeable future.

Witchie

dublinman1990 wrote: »

Just heard via the BBC now that Unicef have said that 940,000 children are in 'urgent need' of humanitarian assistance from areas affected by the earthquakes.

That figure for the kids alone living there is just massive. Prayers to all the families of those people who were killed by the quakes. Hopeful that the death toll will not get any larger than that for the foreseeable future.

Like prayers will help.

Absolutely heartbreaking.

Charlie19

Sky are reporting that the death toll has now risen to 3218. Some frightening footage being shown, including a video from when the avalanche was triggered on everest.

LadyAthame

Charlie19 wrote: »

Sky are reporting that the death toll has now risen to 3218. Some frightening footage being shown, including a video from when the avalanche was triggered on everest.

That is a huge jump.:(

Charlie19

LadyAthame wrote: »

That is a huge jump.:(

Hopefully there won't be that big of an increase when the search resumes.

bb1234567

snubbleste wrote: »

Well if this happened in the US, we'd have non-stop coverage and AH would have 100+ pages on it.
But shure, it only happened in Nepal..

The earthquake happened on Sat morning & AH only got a thread on at 0130..

Really? Ive heard a lot about it. Lots of people sharing things on Facebook, all over radio and news channels. I think people like to moan about how little coverage of non-western tragedies there is because racism I'm so caring and want real equality or something when really there is a lot of coverage

Reddit has been documenting the relief effort India has thrown into effect within 24 hours and it's incredible.

And just to add:
It's a little unfair to say that people don't care because there weren't Westerners involved, just because someone didn't create a post discussing it (plus, I mean, it's really a case of pot calling kettle black). Reddit, which is predominantly Western, has been discussing it since the beginning, the news has been covering it, people have been discussing it.

Heck, if the earthquake happened here, it would probably get the same level of coverage internationally.

Streetwalker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JC_wIWUC2U

Just came across this. Absolutely horrific. R.I.P. to all those that have died whether they be Nepal nationals or foreign nationals attempting to scale the mountain.

RossFixxxed

I was there in 2009. Tibet had stopped being the big climbing route on Everest around then due to political stability. Nepal was becoming more and more packed with people like me, and that can only make this situation worse. More people packed in, more climbers, more risk and more lives lost.

One thing that stood out was a cow kicking a scaffold and big rocks falling off the building in the city centre. We looked around and were commenting that the buildings were in such poor disrepair it's amazing they are still standing.

I deeply feel for everyone there, the Sherpa community were simply amazing people. One in particular (Pemba Nuru) literally saved my life on a couple of occasions. I'm absolutely heartbroken for the loss of life, and the loss to their communities, history and culture. I left that country really deeply loving the Sherpa community, and I'm gutted to see this happen. I'm focusing on them a bit as they were my real introduction to the country, obviously the staggering loss of life in Kathmandu and elsewhere is equally as horrifying.

People climbing these mountains know in their heart the risks (2 of my team died when I was there), but nobody expects the whole country to shake itself into rubble. I'm rambling now, but I'm just so shocked to see a whole country ripped apart like this. I'm hoping this isn't on a scale of Kashmir in 2005 (80k dead), but the number keeps growing.

snubbleste

Death toll since the quake hit at 11:56 local time Saturday
1400 1800 2200 2500 4000

Lollipops23

It seems that so often when these horrific natural disasters happen, they happen to the most vulnerable if places, where so much of the economy relies on people choosing to visit.

So sad that, the tragic human casualties aside, so much of their proud history has been literally reduced to rubble. Will be sending a few bob to the red cross when I get a chance.

discobeaker

Witchie wrote: »

Hope you are safe. If you happen to meet an Irish girl called Sinead NiCionna and her Canadian boyfriend Bertrand Berry, please let them use whatever you are using to communicate to let their families know. I know some of her family and they are very worried.

Witchie - just seen that sineads sister posted up on Facebook that Sinead and her boyfriend were found alive with only minor injuries

Witchie

Thankfully Sinead and her boyfriend are safe and well. They are on the way to Malaysia apparently with a few scrapes and minor injuries but at least safe.

The other guy from my town is still missing though. Hopefully Thomas Drumm is found soon.

dublinman1990

I am watching reports about this disaster on ITV News at Ten. They showed a report in where aid being driven by road is only possible through the Gorkha District. That task in itself is painfully slow to do that because of the heavy traffic levels to the only access point of the earthquake's epicentre.

This means vital aid to that area is very minimal and not enough to meet demand because you're stuck in traffic for several hours or even for the whole day.

Lemsiper

I made it out of Kathmandu last night to Bangkok after sleeping the previous night with a towel over me, not the most pleasant experience but I know there were many thousands in worse situations than my girlfriend and I.

The whole getting aid to places like Gorkha by road is a ridiculous notion. The Prithvi "highway" is barely wide enough for two trucks to pass and that's before the disaster. The traffic is a major issue, 100s of busses leaving Kathmandu.

News reporting of another 7.4 magnitude earthquake hitting Nepal.

smash

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

News reporting of another 7.4 magnitude earthquake hitting Nepal.

I heard they've just upgraded it beyond 7.4