Death toll tops 4,000, while officials plead for aid

Worse in rural areas where rescue crews still struggle to reach mountain villages

KATHMANDU, NEPAL— As the death toll from Nepal’s devastating earthquake climbed past 4,000, aid workers and officials in remote, shattered villages near the epicentre pleaded Monday for food, shelter and medicine.

Help poured in after Saturday’s magnitude-7.8 quake, with countries large and small sending medical and rescue teams, aircraft and basic supplies. The small airport in the capital of Kathmandu was congested and chaotic, with some flights forced to turn back early in the day.

Buildings in parts of the city were reduced to rubble, and there were shortages of food, fuel, electricity and shelter. As bodies were recovered, relatives cremated the dead along the Bagmati River, and at least a dozen pyres burned late into the night.

Conditions were far worse in the countryside, with rescue workers still struggling to reach mountain villages two days after the earthquake.

Some roads and trails to the Gorkha district, where the quake was centred, were blocked by landslides — but also by traffic jams that regularly clog the route north of Kathmandu.

“There are people who are not getting food and shelter. I’ve had reports of villages where 70 per cent of the houses have been destroyed,” said Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha region.

World Vision aid worker Matt Darvas arrived in the district in the afternoon and said almost no assistance had reached there ahead of him.

Facing criticism for not doing enough to help stranded Canadians, Ottawa announced more aid for Nepal, reports the Star’s Alex Ballingall. A trio of federal ministers said the government would match every Canadian dollar pledged to the Nepal Earthquake Relief fund between April 25 and May 25. Canada has already pledged $5 million.

Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson said military transport ferrying Canadian aid supplies to Nepal will be made available for Canadians wishing to flee the devastation. He said the government’s attempt to fly consular staff from New Delhi to add to the small staff in Kathmandu has been hampered by damage to the city’s airport. Some staff arrived Monday afternoon.

The government is issuing emergency replacement documents for Canadians, said Defence Minister Jason Kenney, and will also be extending the visas of Nepalese in Canada in the interim.

Members of Canada’s Disaster Assistance Response Team are expected to arrive in Kathmandu early Wednesday morning.

Timalsina said his district had not received enough help from the central government, but Jagdish Pokhrel, a clearly exhausted army spokesman, said nearly the entire 100,000-soldier army was involved in rescue operations.

“We have 90 per cent of the army out there working on search and rescue,” he said. “We are focusing our efforts on that, on saving lives.”

Nepal’s Home Ministry said the country’s death toll had risen to 4,010. Another 61 were killed in neighbouring India, and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet. At least 18 of the dead were killed at Mount Everest as the quake unleashed an avalanche that buried part of the base camp.

At least 7,180 people were injured in the quake, police said. Tens of thousands are estimated to be left homeless.