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Nepal marks 12th National Earthquake
Safety Day
The 12th National Earthquake Safety Day (NESD)
was observed throughout the nation with the slogan “Let’s reduce the
earthquake risk, enhance the safety of community, and build safer
schools, hospitals and houses” on Saturday.
Hundreds of people participated
in various programmes in the Capital to
commemorate the anniversary of the devastating 1934 earthquake. ‘Duck,
Cover and Hold’ nationwide earthquake drill was conducted at 2.24 p.m in schools across the country to show joint
solidarity towards preparedness for earthquakes.
Speaking at a function to mark the NESD,
Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal urged
everyone to learn the lesson from the earthquake that battered Haiti
killing tens of thousands of people.
He also directed the authority concerned to effectively implement the
Nepal Building Code to reduce the vulnerability of the earthquake.
PM Nepal said that the present government is giving top
priority to disaster risk management. He said that the government was
spending around Rs 1 billion annually as
compensation as well as relief to victims of natural disasters.
National Earthquake Safety Day is marked on
January 16 every year since 1999 which coincides with the 76th
anniversary of the last deadly earthquake measuring 8.3 on the Richter
scale that rocked Nepal in 1934, claimed the lives of 8,500 people and
destroyed a quarter of all houses.
(Posted on 17th January,
2010)
Haiti desperate for help after quake
By Andy Gallacher
BBC News, Haiti
The cries of help that were being heard from
the rubble have now been silenced - for many people it is simply too
late.
Haitians feel very alone at the moment. The
promise of aid has not yet materialised and
many locals are still digging through the rubble with their hands.
Most of the bodies are covered in white bed
sheets or rolled inside carpets, but others have been left exposed to
the hot sun and the stench of rotting bodies has begun to fill the air.
Families who are desperately searching for
their loved ones are gingerly uncovering the sheets that cover the
corpses in the hope they can at least identify family members.
But even if bodies are identified there is
nowhere for them to be laid to rest.
Mass graves are now appearing across the
city.
The mood for the past 24 hours has been one
of patience and solidarity, but there is now a sense of anger and
frustration that could change the atmosphere here drastically.
"This is not the time to blame
anybody. This is a natural disaster, only God knows why it
happened," says Louinel Staibord, who came to Port-Au-Prince from Florida
to find his family.
"I believe that this is the time where
everyone should help each other, this is a time for generosity, we
should sympathise with each other."
Schools hit
Louinel is one of the lucky ones, he has now found all his family members alive
and well.
The rescue effort and the promises of help
are now desperately needed, but so far the fresh supplies of water,
food and medical equipment are still in short supply.
Some of the worst hit buildings were
schools.
Several had more than 1,000 pupils inside
when the massive earthquake hit, and there is little left but concrete
blocks piled one on top of another.
The bodies of children and adults can
clearly be seen, and most will remain that way until the rescue teams
get on the ground.
At night Port-au-Prince grows eerily quiet.
Most people are still too afraid to take
shelter inside the buildings. Tremors are still being felt here and
even the hospitals are treating their patients in the grounds.
The airport, rapidly becoming the centre of
this rescue effort, is in full working order.
The building was damaged but there is power
and the runway, despite some reports, is in good shape.
Military planes are landing more regularly
than they were last night, but there is no sense that the operation has
begun in earnest.
People can now only hope and pray that help
will arrive. Haitians can only depend on international help because the
infrastructure here is decimated.
Time is not on the side of the Haitian
people; help is needed and for many it has already arrived too late.
(Posted on 15th January,
2010)
Thousands feared dead as major quake
strikes Haiti
Thousands of people are feared dead after a
powerful earthquake hit Haiti on Tuesday toppling buildings in the
capital, Port-au-Prince, and triggering repeated aftershocks. The
biggest quake of magnitude 7.0 in this part of the Caribbean struck
about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince and was quickly
followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude.
The quake toppled the presidential palace
and a five-story U.N. building was also brought down.
According to BBC News, A "large
number" of UN personnel were reported missing by the organisation. CNN has reported that there was no
estimate of the dead and wounded Tuesday evening, but the U.S. State
Department has been told to expect "serious loss of life,"
department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington.
According to BBC News, US is preparing to send cutting equipment and a
disaster response team. Venezuela says it will send a 50-strong
"humanitarian assistance team". The Red Cross is dispatching
a relief team from Geneva and the UN's World Food Programme
is flying in two planes with emergency food aid. The UK said it was mobilising help and was "ready to provide
whatever humanitarian assistance may be required". Canada,
Australia, France and a number of Latin American nations have also said
they are mobilising their aid response.
(Posted on 13th January, 2010)
37 injured in a bus accident in Banepa
As many as 37 people were injured, five
seriously, when a passenger bus met with an accident at Budol of Banepa along Araniko Highway on Saturday evening.
According to Sunday's The Kathmandu Post, the Kathmandu-bound
bus veered off the road and fell down leaving about three dozen
passengers injured, police said.
The injured passengers are undergoing
treatment at Dhulikhel Community Hospital and
Banepa-based Shir Memorial
Hospital, the daily said.
(Posted on 10th January, 2010)
Dozens of houses gutted by fire in Pyuthan
Dozens of houses were burnt to ashes in
separate fires at different places on Friday and Saturday, damaging
properties worth millions of rupees.
According to The Kathmandu
Post of 09 January, at least 70 houses have been destroyed in the fire
and similarly, My Republica of 09 January has
reported that fifty five families have been displaced after a fire
engulfed their houses and cattle sheds in Syaulibang
VDC in Pyuthan district on Friday afternoon.
Half a dozen houses were burnt down in Lalpatti
VDC-8 of Saptari district on Saturday
morning, causing damages worth Rs 700,000.
Likewise, fire gutted a house in Mirkot-5 of Gorkha,
damaging property worth Rs 1 million,
including Rs 500,000 cash, on Friday night.
The fire that broke out from the house of Bhakta Bir Gharti in Syaulibang-5 extended to other houses in
Ward No 5, 6 and 7. The fire also burnt a water supply pipeline,
cutting off drinking water supply to the villagers.
According to Kathmandu
Post of 9th January, it was unclear if there were casualties, though
locals suspected that children might have died, the Kathmandu
Post said.
District Police Office, Pyuthan,
sent a team to the village on Saturday morning to assess the damage.
(Posted on 10th January, 2010)
Cold wave claims 18 lives in Terai
The cold wave sweeping across the southern
Nepalese plains has killed at least 18 people since last week. The Kathmandu Post reported that 18 people had died
from the cold as the region continued to suffer intense weather
conditions that have lasted for nearly a week. Twelve of the victims
died on Sunday and Monday. The deaths so far have been reported from
the districts of Saptari (10), Mahottari (6) and Dang (2). Most of the victims
were the elderly and children.
Many Tarai
districts have come under the grip of Cold-related diseases like
pneumonia and cold diarrhoea and respiratory
problems. Patients suffering from cold-related maladies, especially the
elderly and children, have overwhelmed
hospitals and other health centres. Most of
the victims were from among the poor and homeless, who are ill-prepared
for the occasional cold snaps that affect the country.
Nepal's meteorological department said daytime
temperatures across the region were between 10 and 13 degrees Celsius,
about 15 degrees below normal for January. A statement issued by the
department said it expected the thick fog to continue for several days.
(Posted on 5th January, 2010)
Swine flu death officially confirmed in Nepal
First death from swine flu in Nepal was officially confirmed
on Sunday after a female patient died at a hospital in the capital
KathmanduA-29-year old woman, whose identity
has been kept secret, died on Wednesday evening while undergoing
treatment at Bir Hospital. She was admitted
to the hospital for dialysis three weeks ago and was diagnosed as
infected with AH1N1 virus only in recent days. She was then isolated
from other patients and treated at the Intensive Care Unit.
The Ministry of Health was informed about the
death on Sunday afternoon.
An official at the Department of Health Services claimed it was the
second swine flu fatality. According to him, a woman from of Chitwan died of the disease at Janamaitri
Hospital Kathmandu in November. But the
death, unlike that of Wednesday, has not yet been made public.
The MoH has confirmed
150 cases of AH1N1 across the country as of Sunday.
Two Nepalis—one each in Qatar and New Delhi—have already died from swine flu.
Doctors have already declared the swine flu has already spread among
public.
According to the WHO, it is coordinating the
distribution of donated pandemic influenza vaccines to 95 countries.
The MoH said the government has already
reached agreement with the WHO to provide the vaccine in Nepal.
(Posted on 28th
December)
Four killed by falling
rock on Siddhartha Highway
Four persons have died near Siddhababa in the Butwal-Palpa section of the Siddhartha Highway some
3-4 kilometres from Butwal
on Saturday morning around 9:30 after being
struck by a rock rolling down from the hills above.
The deceased have been identified as Jagdish
Bashyal, his wife Sunita
Bashyal, their two-and-half year old son and
19 year old Kamal Thapa, a student of New Horizon Higher Secondary
School, Butwal. They were traveling on
two different motorcycles when a boulder that came rolling with the
landslide crushed them to death. Police and
locals recovered their smashed bodies from under the boulder. The section of the highway is regarded as
accident prone due to rocks falling from Siddhababa
hill.
(Posted on 27th
December)
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