Nepal quake death toll jumps to 4,000
- By Azhar Khan -
- Apr 27, 2015
The quake has also left more than 7,500 injured, according to an update from the home ministry’s National Emergency Operation Centre.
The World Health Organization said Monday it had already distributed medical supplies to cover the health needs of 80,000 people for three months in the country.
“An additional five emergency health kits are being flown in along with surgical kits and trauma bags to meet the immediate health needs. There is an urgent need to replenish medical stocks to support the emergency response efforts,” said Poonam Khetrapal, WHO’s regional director for Southeast Asia.
The picturesque village of Barpak was the epicenter of #Nepal’s earthquake. Now it’s flattened https://t.co/VWmo4TQP1D pic.twitter.com/G3m1a75qf1
— Anup Kaphle (@AnupKaphle) April 27, 2015
But with food also expected to quickly run scarce, WFP has “mobilised all of our food stocks in the region,” Byrs said.
WFP is loading a plane with rations of high energy biscuits in Dubai, and Byrs said it would arrive in Nepal Tuesday.
They would be distributed to survivors in the country, taken by truck where possible, but due to the massive destruction, “the relief cargo may need to be airlifted,” she added.
The UN refugee agency meanwhile said it was on Monday sending nearly 20,000 plastic sheets and some 8,000 solar lamps.
About half the stocks were already in place in Nepal and the rest were being flown from Dubai to Kathmandu on Monday afternoon on a cargo plane donated by the ruler of the United Arab Emirates, UNHCR said.
#Breaking: John Kerry announces an additional $9 million in aid to #Nepal after earthquake: https://t.co/9WDFZDUO7o pic.twitter.com/pFoDCgfGf1
— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) April 27, 2015
WFP experts are meanwhile poring over satellite images to estimate how many people have been affected by the disaster, Byrs said.
She said the worst-hit area was in “an agricultural zone that is home to between two and three million people.”
Millions affected
WFP has been working in Nepal since 1964, and the agency had before the quake already been planning to assist some 500,000 people who do not have enough to eat.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched an emergency appeal for 33.4 million Swiss francs (32 million euros, $35 million) to cope with the crisis and cater for around 75,000 people over the next 18 months.
But it said the number of people affected was far higher with between 4.6 and 6.6 million people thought to be living within a 100-kilometre radius of the epicentre.
“We already had 19,000 prepositioned kits” in Nepal, IFRC chief Elhadj As Sy told reporters in Geneva, adding that they included non-food items like kitchen sets and tarpaulin sheets.
“Charter flights have also been organised with relief items. We hope to get them landed as soon as possible,” he said.
Simon Eccleshall, who heads disaster and crisis management at IFRC, said the “next 72 hours is critical” for people trapped under rubble, as rains could flood the debris.
The UN children’s agency has meanwhile warned that the quake had left nearly one million youngsters in desperate need of assistance.
UNHCR rushes plastic sheeting and solar-powered lamps to Nepal earthquake survivors https://t.co/DlgV2oms5D pic.twitter.com/OBZ3u3ZvE0
— UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) April 27, 2015
UNICEF cautioned that the thousands of children camping out in the open in the capital Kathmandu were particularly at risk of disease.
UNICEF said it was mobilising staff and sending two cargo flights with 120 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, including medical and hospital supplies, tents and blankets.
It was like trying to walk on a fast rowing boat – #WFP staff member describes the #NepalQuake https://t.co/P1rANtO9IX pic.twitter.com/RtTJvB4u4G — World Food Programme (@WFP) April 27, 2015
Rescue on Everest
The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest which buried part of base camp in a cascade of snow and rock, killing at least 18 people Saturday on the world’s highest mountain.
Rescue helicopters on Monday airlifted climbers from higher altitudes on the mountain where they were stranded above crevasses and icefalls, after evacuating scores of seriously injured from base camp the day before.
Hundreds of mountaineers had gathered at Everest at the start of the annual climbing season, and the real scale of the disaster there has been impossible to evaluate with communications all but cut off.
Reconstruction efforts in impoverished Nepal could cost more than $5 billion, or around 20 percent of the country’s GDP, according to Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at business research firm IHS.
Nearly a million children living in affected areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said.
Scenes of the devastation from Nepal https://t.co/LeJj5MtQmm pic.twitter.com/fIWpECqoL1
— Bloomberg Business (@business) April 27, 2015
The quake triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest which buried part of base camp in a cascade of snow and rock, killing at least 18 people Saturday on the world’s highest mountain.
Rescue helicopters on Monday airlifted climbers from higher altitudes on the mountain where they were stranded above crevasses and icefalls, after evacuating scores of seriously injured from base camp the day before.
Hundreds of mountaineers had gathered at Everest at the start of the annual climbing season, and the real scale of the disaster there has been impossible to evaluate with communications all but cut off.
Reconstruction efforts in impoverished Nepal could cost more than $5 billion, or around 20 percent of the country’s GDP, according to Rajiv Biswas, Asia Pacific chief economist at business research firm IHS.
Nearly a million children living in affected areas are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, UNICEF said.