Second quake adds to devastation in Nepal
A 7.3 temblor causes more deaths. Also, a copter based at Camp Pendleton is missing.
KATMANDU, Nepal — Still reeling from last month’s devastating earthquake, Nepal was hammered again Tuesday by a magnitude 7.3 temblor that caused dozens more deaths, unleashed landslides and brought down unsteady buildings.
In late afternoon, Nepal’s Home Affairs Ministry said at least 42 people were killed and more than 1,117 injured in the largest aftershock yet recorded from the 7.8 quake on April 25. Officials said that the toll could rise.
Separately, the U.S. military reported that a Marine helicopter from a unit based in Southern California had gone missing Tuesday while on a humanitarian mission in the Charikot area of Nepal.
The helicopter, a UH-1Y Huey, was carrying two Nepalese soldiers and six Marines, said Army Maj. Dave Eastburn, a Pacific Command spokesman. Nepalese troops were searching for the aircraft on foot but an aerial search was suspended because of darkness and will resume at dawn Wednesday, he said.
The aircraft is attached to Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 469 based at Camp Pendleton.
The epicenter for the quake Tuesday was nearly 50 miles northeast of the capital, Katmandu, near the Chinese border, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The April quake, which killed more than 8,150 people, was centered in the mountains west of Katmandu.
The temblor struck just before 1 p.m., sending residents of the capital scurrying into the open air for safety, and was followed by a series of smaller aftershocks that further rattled nerves.
Within hours, new makeshift tents were popping up in parts of Katmandu as survivors of last month’s quake who had returned to their homes decided again that they were safer sleeping outdoors.
The Home Affairs Ministry said nine people were pulled out alive from damaged buildings in the remote Dolakha district, close to the quake’s epicenter near Mt. Everest, and three from structures in Katmandu.
A U.S. search-and-rescue team was seen leaving its hotel in central Katmandu a few hours after the quake and was believed to be headed for Dolakha. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Katmandu said three U.S. military aircraft were taking 20 U.S. personnel, including 18 urban search-and-rescue team members, “to conduct initial assessments in Charikot,” the seat of Dolakha district. It was not immediately clear whether the missing Marine helicopter was among them.
The search teams, including firefighters from Los Angeles County and Fairfax County, Va., who deployed after the April quake, had been scheduled to leave Nepal on Monday but have delayed their departure and were responding to the latest temblor under the direction of Nepalese authorities, U.S. officials said.
Using Osprey aircraft, which can take off and land vertically, the U.S. teams and Nepalese army personnel evacuated at least 16 injured people from Charikot to Katmandu on Tuesday, the embassy said. Embassy officials said they had no immediate reports of American casualties.
At least 30 of the country’s 75 administrative districts were affected, according to state-run Radio Nepal. The quake caused the temporary closure of Katmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, the hub for relief operations, and was felt as far as New Delhi, about 500 miles west of Katmandu.
At least four were killed in Chautara, the seat of Sindhupalchowk district, said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, citing reports from colleagues there. The April quake damaged or destroyed about 90% of the buildings in the town of about 6,000, which is built on a rugged ridge line.
Landslides were reported in Sindhupalchowk, which suffered the greatest number of casualties last month. It was not immediately clear whether the landslides caused casualties.
Relief workers said the aftershock created new challenges for the international humanitarian effort that has been mobilized. The April quake, the biggest in Nepal in nearly a century, also injured nearly 18,000 people and damaged or destroyed hundreds of thousands of structures.
Kayla Robertson, a relief worker with U.S.-based World Vision, was in central Katmandu on Tuesday. “All you could hear was screaming and crying,” she said.
“People have only just stopped and been able to pick up the pieces from last month’s quake,” Robertson said. “Sadly, all of our activities in the field have stopped. We’ve put a halt to them while people go to be where they’re safe.”