1800 Dead in Nepal Earthquake

Combined News Sources

Rescue crews and residents in Nepal early Sunday began the desperate search for survivors after a magnitude-7.8 quake near the capital of Kathmandu a day earlier flattened homes, buildings and temples, causing widespread damage across the region and killing more than 1,800 people.

Afterward, whole streets and squares in the nation’s capital and largest city were covered in rubble. Stunned residents stared at temples that were once part of their daily lives and now were flattened to the ground.

Locals and tourists ferreted through mounds of debris in search of survivors. Cheers rose from the piles when people were found alive, but mostly bodies turned up. The injured wound up being treated outside overflowing hospitals, where crowds of people gathered looking for relatives.

The death toll of 1,832 is expected to rise as the full extent of the damage is assessed.

Shliach in Kathmandu, Nepal, Chezki Lifshitz told Israel’s Arutz 10 that he is helping hundreds of Israeli backpackers after the disaster.

“Around 5 minutes to 12, we suddenly felt the earth rumbling, it sounded like a huge motor underground,” Lifshitz said. “Suddenly, things started falling. We ran out to the open space here, and just a few minutes later many Israelis from the area gathered here. It’s a relatively secure place, since there are no buildings that could fall,” he said. “All around us buildings were falling down, with people inside.”

Mrs. Chanie Lifshitz told the media that “it is a really difficult scene here.”

In a message to parents of Israelis in the area, Chezki Lifshitz said that “the earthquake was a few long minutes, but we are still feeling the after shocks for many hours later. The scene is very bad here, and many are wounded.

“Hundreds of Israelis are in the Chabad House now, and we are trying to give them a comfortable place to stay despite the chaos outside. Nepal is completely disconnected from water and electricity, we are preparing to find sleeping accommodations for everyone in the Chabad House.”

The main effort, Lifshitz said, is to locate all the Israelis in the area and find out if they are okay. Their efforts are helped by a GPS locator system they provide backpackers with to keep track of their whereabouts, he said.

Residents, terrorized by a seemingly endless series of aftershocks, huddled in the cold rain overnight for safety. Dozens of bodies were pulled from the nine-story Dharahara tower that came crashing down during the quake. At least 12 bodies were evacuated from a Mount Everest base camp hit by avalanches.

An estimated 4.6 million people in the region were exposed to tremors from the Nepal earthquake, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said via Twitter. In Nepal, 30 out of 75 districts were affected by the quake.

Israel will send two El Al 747 planes to Nepal on Sunday, with Magen David Adom, Ichud Hatzalah and Zaka personnel and equipment, to rescue Israelis caught in the massive earthquake and offer medical assistance to the Nepalese.

Those Israelis wanting to leave Nepal will be able to return on those planes.

As of press time, some 200 Israelis were unaccounted for. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the absence of phone service in the aftermath of the quake made it difficult to locate Israelis known to be in the country and cautioned against assuming that those unaccounted for were in danger.