भिडिओ हेर्न तलको बिज्ञापन हटाउनुस !
Crumbled, devastated buildings line the narrow roads of
Sindhupalchok, a Himalayan foothill district where the death count from
Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 earthquake has just surpassed that of the
capital, Kathmandu. Relief workers have only just begun to address the
scale and scope of need in the district, which lies around 40 miles (65
km) northeast of Kathmandu. But for many villagers, the lack of
government assistance over the past five days has provoked vocal and
visible anger.
“We haven’t received anything,” said Rachana Sahi, 25, as she helped her
family members dig through pieces of their destroyed house for remnants
of their belongings. “We’ll get help after we die.”
The earthquake destroyed some 80 percent of the 60,000 houses in
Sindhupalchok. So far, 1,746 deaths have been confirmed there, said
Sitaram Joshi, the leader of the Nepal Red Cross’s national disaster
response team. In Kathmandu Valley, which has so far been the center of
relief efforts, 1,448 people have been confirmed dead to date, according
to the National Emergency Operation Center. Joshi also estimated that
the number of dead in Sindhupalchok could rise as high as 5,000 in the
coming weeks as more bodies are discovered.Sindhupalchok’s terrain, with
villages scattered across steep mountains and narrow, twisting roads,
has drastically slowed rescue efforts, so that vehicles taking the
40-mile journey from Kathmandu need about three hours to get there.
Meanwhile, electricity and communication lines have been cut off across
the district, leaving residents even more isolated. Civilians do with
their own hands the work of rescuers who haven’t arrived yet. In one
village, members of one family drilled through the floor of a pink
apartment building leaning diagonally on the building next door, trying
to pull out a dead relative. A few steps away, others made neat piles of
blankets, framed photos and other possessions they managed to retrieve
from the piles of dust and stone.
In the village of Sangachok, where 183 people have been confirmed dead,
the smell of carrion from livestock still buried under piles of rubble
lingered in the air. The survivors there are living off food salvaged
from their shops — packages of biscuits and dried noodles — that many
expect will last perhaps another week. Their supply of clean water is
fast running out, heightening fears of a looming onslaught of
water-borne diseases. Children have already begun to suffer from
diarrhea. The residents have been too focused on day-to-day survival to
devise plans for when their remaining supplies run out.“People are not
thinking. They are just afraid,” said Suraj Giri, a 22-year-old science
teacher in Sangachok. Giri lost his house, his uncle was killed, and the
school where he worked was also destroyed in the earthquake. The
villagers buried their dead themselves, with no means to hold any
funerals.“Nepal has gotten help from other countries like America,
China, India,” Giri said. “Supplies are coming in to the airport in
Kathmandu. But they are not bringing it here.”
Local officials — the chief district officer and local development
officer — haven’t been seen at all in Sangachok, fueling rumors that
they had fled the district altogether for the capital. However, relief
workers and army personnel said they had been meeting with the officials
in Chautara, the administrative headquarters, to discuss the emergency
response. But the government representatives have stayed out of the
public eye as anger from residents swelled.On Wednesday, dozens of
people crowded in front of the administrative office in Chautara,
demanding that officials deliver more tarps to earthquake survivors
sleeping without shelter. “The government has tents, but they’re not
giving them out,” said K.C. Netra, a villager who had joined the
crowd.“Some tents are coming in, and they’re trying to distribute them
to people, but when someone gets one and others don’t, people get
angry,” said Nil Birram Tamang, a driver for the district administrative
office. “There just aren’t enough materials.”
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