Villages Near Nepal Earthquake’s Epicenter Are Desperate as Death Toll Tops 3,800

On Monday afternoon, Parbati Dhakal and several dozen of her neighbors walked two hours down a jungle path, carrying 11 bodies attached to bamboo poles. They stopped at a riverbank where they lowered the dead into holes.

One of the villagers pointed to the people gathered there and identified them, one by one: “Father just buried; mother just buried; sister just buried.”

Back in Saurpani, an ethnic Gurkha village at the epicenter of Saturday’s quake, Ms. Dhakal said, “we have no shelter, no food and all the bodies are scattered around. A day after Nepal’s worst earthquake in 80 years, the official death toll had risen to more than 3,800, and humanitarian aid was starting to flow to the capital. Katmandu’s airport had been so overloaded by aid and passenger planes that incoming flights sat for hours on the runway. Nepali expatriates were flying in, desperate to track down family members, and setting off down the airport access road on foot, rolling suitcases behind them

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/world/asia/nepal-earthquake.html?rref=world/asia&module=ArrowsNav&contentCollection=Asia%20Pacific&action=click&region=FixedLeft&pgtype=article