Fresh avalanches force workers to call off search in Nepal
May 10, 2015, 12:54 AM
A Nepalese girl studies inside a makeshift tent in Kathmandu, Nepal, Saturday, May 9, 2015. The international response has been slow to an appeal for emergency funds to help the millions of people hit by last month's earthquake in Nepal, a U.N. official said Friday. Jamie McGoldrick, the U.N.'s chief official in Nepal, said the agency had received $22 million so far against an appeal last week for $415 million to support relief efforts for the first three months in the Himalayan nation. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)
KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Fresh avalanches forced rescuers in a village buried by a landslide in northern Nepal to stop searching for bodies in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, officials said Sunday.
The avalanches on Friday and Saturday made the work dangerous for police and army rescuers, and they moved to higher and safer ground, said government administrator Gautam Rimal.
Weather conditions also deteriorated with continuing rainfall and fog, he said.
The April 25 earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and injured more than 16,000 others, as it flattened mountain villages and destroyed buildings and archaeological sites in the Himalayan region.
So far, 120 bodies have been recovered from Langtang Valley, a scenic village on a popular trekking route located about 60 kilometers (35 miles) north of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.
Among the bodies were those of nine foreigners, and it was still not clear how many people were buried in the village that was covered by a mudslide set loose by the magnitude-7.8 quake.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been left homeless and are still living in tent camps scattered across central and northern Nepal.
About 1,000 of them lined up outside a camp in Bhaktapur, a suburb east of Kathmandu, on Sunday to get a small sack of food and supplies.
“I have been standing in the line for hours so I can pick up food for my family. I am living with my parents, my wife, children and brothers in the open and are totally dependent on these relief materials,” said Ramesh Boyaju, 27, a transport worker who has been without job for two weeks.
Another resident, Rupesh Sayaju, said the quake reduced his four-story house to 1
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
