Pollyana

Absolutely dreadful damage, thousands dead, and the earth hasn't stopped shaking yet nearly 12 hours after the first big quake.

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Nepal earthquake: Hundreds die, many feared trapped - BBC News

The 7.8 magnitude quake struck an area between the capital, Kathmandu, and the city of Pokhara, the US Geological Survey said.
Tremors were felt across the region, with further loss of life in India, Bangladesh, Tibet and on Mount Everest.
The government has declared a state of emergency in the affected areas.
A national police spokesman told the BBC that 970 people had died in the quake, and that more than 1,700 had been injured. At least 539 people were killed in the Kathmandu valley, he added.
Nepali Information Minister Minendra Rijal said there had been "massive damage" at the epicentre, from where little information is emerging.

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Lots of temples and monuments have been destroyed or have been damaged and left in a dangerous condition.
International disaster response agencies are already mobilised but with major damage to the infrastructure flying aid in will be difficult.

Pollyana

Deadly earthquake Nepal – Death count now at 1508 and further rising

Terrible pics and reports coming out


Some of the pics on this link could be distressing so be careful.

GarryP

It was fairly obvious when the magnitude, depth, and location came in that there would be quite a few casualties. The thing that surprised me was the timelag between the quake turning up as an alert in my app, and the news reporting a 'breaking story' - two hours later.

Is it just me, or are the news services getting worse as time moves on? Not only are they slow with the news (thought still claim more stories as 'breaking news'), the detail and analysis is lacking, and, of course, many more stories are culled from online sources after they original ran (news.com.au is the habitual copier, but I've seen the Beeb do it too).

For instance, here's a video report from the BBC from 3 hours ago, with video of the quake.

Over 1,000 dead as earthquake strikes Nepal - BBC News

and here's where they ripped off some of the video from, 12 hours ago

https://www.facebook.com/kishor.rana...3264317832603/

In terms of earthquakes, my goto source would now be /u/TheEarthquakeGuy on reddit rather than the news services. Compare and contrast the coverage http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/co...epal/?sort=top

Pollyana

Yep, thats another one we use at work

So scary for the survivors, the earth is still shaking, they had another big one over there this afternoon amongst the smaller shocks.

I agree some of the news reporting is appalling, all claiming just in and braking news. And how anyone at all can publish numbers of confirmed dead beats me, no-one has any idea at all what the toll will be, just quit coming out with numbers for now!

The Bloke

Got word on FB from a guy I know whose fiancé was travelling through there - she is now on flight home after being unaccounted for a time.

mikelincs

Apparently a Google executive is one of the victims, but the reporting of figures is very hit and miss, they haven't got to everywhere yet, and in manay cases do not know how many people were in any of the building that have collapsed, so it's no wonder that varuios figures are being quoted, I mena there are reports of as many as 20 pople killed on Everest by avalanches as a result of the quake.
I suspect it will be at least a week before we know any real figures, and in many disasters like this the true toll is never known.

Pollyana

Glad she is ok
We spent last night at work doing reports and looking at sending teams from Aus over to assist with the rescue effort.
There's no way of even estimating figures at present, not even in the cities never mind out in the remote areas. There were reports of over 400 people being at the Everest bas camps but no one actually knows how many have survived even in that area.
Aid is hampered by the fact that infrastructure has suffered such damage that it can't cope with large aircraft and even first respinse teams are flying in split into smaller numbers than usual, rather than a large team all arriving with all their gear in one go. Its a nightmar scenario, complicated by continuing quakes.

Makes you realise how life can change so fast, and how lucky some of us are.

mikelincs

Some UK rescue personnel have already gone as well

Pollyana

it was a pretty quick response, k think we all realised instantly that some serious help was reuqired. The devastation is so great that you have to worry about the people of the area in the longterm though

GarryP

Video of the avalanche hitting Everest base camp :


I'd assumed that those killed on Everest were elsewhere - the Google exec was apparently with a crew doing streetmap survey aiming to get to the summit.

Beoz

That is scary. Amazingly they didn't get fully buried nor did the tent get blown away. Amazing footage.

GarryP

Apparently those that died tended to be near an 'ice fall' that was part of the route up from base camp. It came down and (reports aren't clear) either the blast of air from the collapse, or the ice/rocks itself, resulted in climbers getting bludgeoned by big rocks. Word has it of people getting blown 30m.

Hence there is currently no way down from camp 1 - the climbers there are stuck.

Gordon Barlow

My son and his girlfriend had been on a three-week holiday in Nepal, and left a few days before the quake. You've got to be lucky, haven't you? 500 yards from the hotel they stayed in, one of the buildings collapsed entirely.

scrubbedexpat098

Just talking to a mate of mine at work, most of the photo's his daughter took before Christmas, can never be taken again. Extremely sad, heart goes out to them all

Pollyana

Overall Red Earthquake alert in Nepal on 12 May 2015 07:05 UTC

Nepal is copping it again......7.4 and 6.2