Quake-aid need acute in Nepal capital, more so in villages

KATHMANDU, Nepal: (AP)

Shelter, fuel, food, medicine, power, news, workers, was scarce, as Nepal's earthquake-hit capital was short on everything yesterday.While survivors searched for lost loved ones, sorting through rubble for their belongings and struggled to provide for their families' needs. In much of the countryside, it was worse, though how much worse was only beginning to become apparent.

death toll climbs

The death toll soared past 3,700, even without a full accounting from vulnerable mountain villages that rescue workers were still struggling to reach two days after the disaster.

Udav Prashad Timalsina, the top official for the Gorkha district, where Saturday's magnitude 7.8 quake was centered, said he was in desperate need of help.

"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," he said.

Aid group World Vision said its staff members were able to reach Gorkha, but gathering information from the villages remained a challenge. Even when roads are clear, the group said, some remote areas can be three days' walk from Gorkha's main disaster center.

Some roads and trails have been blocked by landslides, the group said in an email to The Associated Press. "In those villages that have been reached, the immediate needs are great including the need for search and rescue, food items, blankets and tarps, and medical treatment."

Timalsina said 223 people had been confirmed dead in Gorkha district but he presumed "the number would go up because there are thousands who are injured." He said his district had not received enough help from the central government, but Jagdish Pokhrel, the 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."