Irish aid worker: Quake bounced my car like a football
AN Irish aid worker in Nepal has told of the terrifying moment when the earthquake hit yesterday, saying his car shook so violently it felt like he was ‘on a fairground ride’.
At least 37 people have been confirmed dead after t he Himalayan republic was rocked by another quake just two weeks after its worst natural disaster in decades.
Many Irish aid workers who travelled to Nepal to help with relief efforts after the first earthquake 17 days ago have been caught up in this second convulsion.
Oxfam Ireland’s humanitarian manager, Colm Byrne, said the quake had cruelly plunged the country back into chaos just as people were beginning to recover from the initial disaster.
‘I was sitting in a car in a town called Chautara in the Sindhupalchowk district when the quake hit.
‘We were parked in the middle of the town square and the car just started bouncing around like a football. It was like we were on some sort of fairground ride,’ he said.
‘My first thought was that the driver had tried to drive the car with the handbrake on or that there was something wrong with the car.
‘But then the screaming started and I knew it was another major earthquake.’
The newest quake registered 7.3 and struck between the capital Kathmandu and Mount Everest.
It terrified a nation already shellshocked after a 7.9 quake on April 25 killed more than 8,150 and flattened entire villages, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.
Villagers who watched their homes collapse yesterday said they only survived because they were already living in tents after the first quake.
Chautara is about 40km from the epicentre of the earthquake and at least four people died there after several buildings collapsed.
Mr Byrne said there was panic on the streets in the moments after the quake, which was felt thousands of miles away in neighbouring Tibet and India and triggered a series of landslides. It also caused many buildings damaged last month to collapse, leaving more than 1,100 people injured. The death toll was estimated to be 37 last night but is expected to rise.
‘A lot of buildings that were damaged in the first quake have been destroyed,’ Mr Byrne said.
‘Buildings had been marked red for destroyed, orange for damaged and green for stable. It is mostly the orange buildings that have been destroyed this time around.
‘A lot of people trying to rebuild their lives brick by brick have now been caught in the second earthquake.’
The aid worker said the quake didn’t come as a complete surprise to the Nepalese people as many had been living on the streets in fear of returning to their homes.
Darren Hanniffy, of Goal Ireland, said his team were left ‘shaken’ after being forced to flee their hotel in the capital during the quake. He said: ‘The building shook quite violently. It’s a daunting experience. The whole building is shaking and you are struggling to catch your footing.
‘It challenges your senses – you don’t expect the ground to be moving under you.
‘Everybody was vacating all of the buildings around and huddling together in a safe place in the open,’ he said.
Mr Hanniffy added: ‘I was here in the days after the major earthquake two weeks ago and I witnessed the fear and shock that people were in.
‘Over the following days, people calmed down and there was very heavy rainfall that drove people back indoors and life began to return to some level of normality. Today as I drive through the streets I can see that there’s a real tension in the air.
‘It’s very disconcerting for people who have lost family members to have such a heavy reminder of the trauma that everybody went through two weeks ago,’ he said.
Nepal’s Home Ministry reported at least 42 deaths but later lowered the toll to 37. It said at least 1,139 people had been injured.
In neighbouring India, at least 16 people were confirmed dead after roofs or walls collapsed on them, according to India’s Home Ministry. Chinese media reported one death in Tibet.
Rescue helicopters were sent to mountain districts where landslides and collapsed buildings might have buried people. Domestic Affairs Ministry official Laxmi Dhakal said the Sindhupalchowk and Dolkha districts were the worst hit.
Search parties fanned out to look for survivors in the wreckage of collapsed buildings in Chautara, which became a hub for humanitarian aid after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake on April 25, Nepal’s worst-recorded quake since 1934.
The latest event was followed closely by at least ten strong aftershocks, according to the US Geological Survey.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said he was not aware of any injuries or fatalities to Irish people in the region.
‘The department is in ongoing contact with citizens remaining in Nepal. There are no reports or suggestions of any Irish casualties,’ he said.
Aid workers said Irish tourists, backpackers and climbers left the country after the first quake.
‘Like being on a fairground ride’ ‘Huddling in safe places in the open’