AFP, Hong Kong :
International aid groups and governments intensified efforts to get rescuers and supplies into earthquake-hit Nepal on Sunday, but severed communications and landslides in the Himalayan nation posed formidable challenges to the relief effort.
As the death toll surpassed 2,200, the US together with several European and Asian nations sent emergency crews to reinforce those scrambling to find survivors in the devastated capital Kathmandu and in rural areas cut off by blocked roads and patchy phone networks.
“We know that in many areas – both rural and in some of the larger towns – have suffered landslides and roads are cut off,” said Mike Bruce, regional communications manager for Plan International aid organisation.
Although mobile networks appeared to be being restored by mid-afternoon today, he said, coverage remained sporadic.
“People are sleeping on the streets and cooking outside for the most part. And we are talking about very, very poor areas of Nepal – areas that are already suffering a great deal,” said Brice.
Other aid organisations relayed their fears that stocks of essential supplies were rapidly running out, and described the fearsome effects of the quake.
“We witnessed terrible scenes of destruction – hospitals were evacuated with patients being treated on the ground outside, homes and buildings demolished and some roads cracked wide open,” said Eleanor Trinchera, Caritas Australia programme coordinator for Nepal, who was an hour outside the capital when the quake struck.
A lack of electricity would soon be complicated by a scarcity of water, aid groups said, with medical supplies also dwindling, while Oxfam told AFP morgues were reaching capacity.
“Communication systems are congested and hospitals are crowded and are running out of room for storing dead bodies,” Helen Szoke, the charity’s Australia chief executive, told AFP. Survivors also slept in the open in Kathmandu overnight, braving the cold for fear of being crushed by the teetering ruins of buildings.
Hundreds of structures, including office blocks and a landmark nine-storey tower, crashed to the ground at around midday on Saturday when the 7.8-magnitude quake struck.
Meanwhile snowfalls on Saturday thwarted efforts to airlift survivors from an avalanche that hit part of Everest base camp, killing at least 18 people, although choppers started landing today.
As Nepal began to take stock of the devastation, a US disaster response team was en route and an initial $1 million in aid to address immediate needs had been authorised, the US Agency for International Development said.
Australia and New Zealand together pledged more than $4.5 million, and said they were working to locate hundreds of their citizens believed to be in Nepal, and South Korea promised $1 million in humanitarian aid.
International aid groups and governments intensified efforts to get rescuers and supplies into earthquake-hit Nepal on Sunday, but severed communications and landslides in the Himalayan nation posed formidable challenges to the relief effort.
As the death toll surpassed 2,200, the US together with several European and Asian nations sent emergency crews to reinforce those scrambling to find survivors in the devastated capital Kathmandu and in rural areas cut off by blocked roads and patchy phone networks.
“We know that in many areas – both rural and in some of the larger towns – have suffered landslides and roads are cut off,” said Mike Bruce, regional communications manager for Plan International aid organisation.
Although mobile networks appeared to be being restored by mid-afternoon today, he said, coverage remained sporadic.
“People are sleeping on the streets and cooking outside for the most part. And we are talking about very, very poor areas of Nepal – areas that are already suffering a great deal,” said Brice.
Other aid organisations relayed their fears that stocks of essential supplies were rapidly running out, and described the fearsome effects of the quake.
“We witnessed terrible scenes of destruction – hospitals were evacuated with patients being treated on the ground outside, homes and buildings demolished and some roads cracked wide open,” said Eleanor Trinchera, Caritas Australia programme coordinator for Nepal, who was an hour outside the capital when the quake struck.
A lack of electricity would soon be complicated by a scarcity of water, aid groups said, with medical supplies also dwindling, while Oxfam told AFP morgues were reaching capacity.
“Communication systems are congested and hospitals are crowded and are running out of room for storing dead bodies,” Helen Szoke, the charity’s Australia chief executive, told AFP. Survivors also slept in the open in Kathmandu overnight, braving the cold for fear of being crushed by the teetering ruins of buildings.
Hundreds of structures, including office blocks and a landmark nine-storey tower, crashed to the ground at around midday on Saturday when the 7.8-magnitude quake struck.
Meanwhile snowfalls on Saturday thwarted efforts to airlift survivors from an avalanche that hit part of Everest base camp, killing at least 18 people, although choppers started landing today.
As Nepal began to take stock of the devastation, a US disaster response team was en route and an initial $1 million in aid to address immediate needs had been authorised, the US Agency for International Development said.
Australia and New Zealand together pledged more than $4.5 million, and said they were working to locate hundreds of their citizens believed to be in Nepal, and South Korea promised $1 million in humanitarian aid.
