£19m pours in for Nepal
International relief efforts could be required for several months
MORE than £19 million has been donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee Nepal Earthquake Appeal a day after it was launched.
The money is made up of £14 million given by the UK public by text, phone and online and £5 million from the UK Government through Aid Match.
At least one Briton, who lived in Hong Kong, has been confirmed dead, and the Foreign Office is checking reports another died in the Mount Everest avalanche that followed Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which killed 5,000 people. The British public have been urged to do what they can to help in the wake of the quake, with a televised appeal reminding people of the sacrifices of Nepalese Gurkha soldiers for the UK.
The Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund is sending an initial £50,000 to pay for immediate aid for survivors after launching its own emergency appeal.
Unicef has also launched a £33m appeal to get humanitarian assistance to 1.7 million children in need of urgent aid.
A SECOND British national may have died after the Nepal earthquake as it emerged aid workers have reached a hilly district near the epicentre for the first time since the disaster, which has killed more than 5,000 people so far.
The Foreign Office said it was urgently investigating reports that a Briton had perished on Mount Everest, where base camps were buried under tonnes of snow after Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake caused huge avalanches.
Earlier, it was confirmed a Briton, who had lived in Hong Kong, was among the victims in Nepal.
The UK is preparing to send RAF Chinook helicopters to Nepal to help with the relief effort.
Foreign Secret ary Philip Hammond said: “Foreign Office staff continue to work around the clock tracing British nationals and getting them to safety in the wake of this catastrophe.
Nepalese women pleaded for food, shelter and anything else that a helicopter might have brought on an in-and-out run to the smashed mountain village of Gumda.
Unlike in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, where most buildings were spared complete collapse, the tiny hamlets clinging to the remote mountainsides of Gorkha District have been ravaged.
“We are hungry,” cried a woman who gave her name only as Deumaya, gesturing towards her stomach and opening her mouth to emphasise her desperation. Another woman, Ramayana, her eyes hollow and haunted, repeated the plea: “Hungry! We are hungry!”
Gumda is one of a handful of villages identified as the worst hit by Saturday’s earthquake, from which it will almost certainly take years to recover. Of Gumda’s 1,300 people, five were killed in the quake and 20 more were injured.
As the helicopter landed with 40 kilogram (90lbs) sacks of rice, wind and rain whipped across the crest of the mountain. Seeing the conditions, the UN World Food Programme’s Geoff Pinnock shouted over the roar of the rotors, “the next shipment has to be plastic sheets. These people need shelter more than they need food.”
“More helicopters, more personnel and certainly more relief supplies including medical teams, shelter, tents, water and sanitation and food are obviously needed,” said Mr Pinnock, who was co-ordinating the aid relief flights.
With eight million Nepalese affected by the earthquake, including 1.4m needing immediate food assistance, Mr Pinnock said the relief effort would go on for months.
Nepalese police said the death toll from the quake had reached 5,045. Another 19 were killed on the slopes of Mount Everest, while 61 died in neighbouring India, and China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported 25 dead in Tibet.
The disaster also injured more than 10,000, police said, and thousands more left homeless.
The UN says the disaster has affected 8.1 million people – more than a quarter of Nepal’s population of 27.8 million – and that 1.4m needed food assistance.
Planes carrying food and other supplies have been steadily arriving at Kathmandu’s small airport, but the aid distribution process remains fairly chaotic, with Nepalese officials having difficulty directing the flow of emergency supplies.
Police arrested dozens of people on suspicion of looting abandoned homes as well as causing panic by spreading rumours of another big quake. Twenty seven people were detained for stealing.
But in a sign that life was inching back to normal, banks in Kath- mandu opened for a few hours and stuffed their ATMs with cash, giving people access to money.
Thousands of people also lined up at bus stations. “I am hoping to get on a bus, any bus heading out of Kathmandu. I am too scared to be staying in Kathmandu,” said Raja Gurung, who wanted to get to his home in western Nepal. “The house near my rented apartment collapsed. It was horrible. I have not gone indoors in many days. ”
The total number of people killed on Mount Everest has risen to 19, including five foreign climbers and 14 Sherpa guides. A number of Britons were due to arrive in the UK from Nepal early today.