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2 May 2015

Nepal earthquake: from impact to struggling relief effort

Seven days after the earthquake that shook Nepal – killing thousands and destroying ancient buildings – getting aid to the huge numbers in need is still suffering painful delays.

The official death toll from the earthquake in Nepal a week ago has passed 6,600, and the number of people confirmed injured has reached 14,000.

But aid is only slowly reaching the thousands of people in need, as rescuers strive to find and help the thousands stranded in isolated settlements outside the capital, and aid agencues struggle to deliver aid to those most in need.

This is the story of Nepal’s devestation since the earthquake struck.

The quake hits: Saturday 25 April

The worst earthquake to hit Nepal in 81 years leaves at least 1,500 people dead, killing dozens in India and triggering a deadly avalanche at Mount Everest.

Drone footage later reveals the extent of the damage wrought on Kathmandu:

The quake is centred 50 miles east of Nepal’s second city, Pokhara, but initial relief efforts are hampered by a communications breakdown, raising fears of a humanitarian disaster hitting Nepal’s 28m people.

The first images to emerge from the capital Kathmandu show panicked residents scrambling through rubble and wreckage from collapsed buildings, desperately trying to reach people buried beneath.

Several climbers are thought to have died at a Mount Everest base camp in the avalanche that followed the quake – it is later confirmed that 18 climbers lost their lives in the aftermath:

The search for survivors: glimmers of hope

Search teams scour the remains of Kathmandu to find people trapped by collapsed buildings as the official death toll rapidly climbs to 2,000.

But as survivors are dragged from the rubble, the scale of destruction and the human cost starts to sink in – in some areas 80 per cent of buildings have been levelled:

Scale of the challenge becomes clear

Nepal’s prime minister, Shushil Koralia, estimates that 10,000 may have been killed by the earthquake.

Rescuers continue their search for survivors, but now it is too often the dead they recover from Nepal’s ruins, as outlying villages are still to be reached.

And frustration boils over among those desperate for food and water in the wake of the disaster.

Fear gives way to anger

Four days after the quake, protesters square off with police in Kathmandu over perceived failures by the government to provide relief and to help residents leave Kathmandu.

It is not only in the capital where tensions are running high, as rescue workers report fights breaking out between hundreds of tourists and locals in the remote Langtang village in Rasuwa district, a popular trekking area.

Jonathan Miller explores the earthquake’s shattered “crumple zone”, a short way east of Khatmandu:

Slow aid stirs strong reactions

Extensive quake-ravaged areas of Nepal within easy reach of the capital on reasonable roads are yet to receive any assistance from either the government or foreign relief agencies.

Distressed and hungry quake-refugees emerging from remote villages close to the Tibetan border report death and destruction on a horrifying scale.

Jonathan Miller encounters the deadly impact of the quake’s shockwave outside the capital:

Those interviewed by Channel 4 News say roads running through devastated settlements in the Himalayan foothills are strewn with rotting corpses.

Nepal’s aftermath: an apocalyptic scene

Our Foreign Correspondent Jonathan Miller travels out from the capital Khatmandu five days after the earthquake hits. A three-hour drive and 25 miles later, he reaches the village of Bhimtar.

“Having driven through other towns and villages en route, which showed limited signs of earthquake damage, what confronted us in Bhimtar was a shock,” he says. “It looked like an apocalyptic film set.”

“Eighty of its 100 houses had imploded into piles of mud-brick rubble and jagged splintered timbers.”

Thirty-three villagers had been killed when the quake struck and scores more were badly injured. The smell of death came not from human bodies – they’ve now all been cremated on the Indrawati riverbank below – but from more than 500 dead animals, still buried in collapsed byres.

One of the villagers tells him: “We would prefer it if we had another earthquake so we could all just die.”

Aid slowly reaches those in need

Relief agencies defend themselves against criticism that the international response has been sluggish, as Nepalis in villages destroyed by the earthquake become ever more desperate for help.

Jonathan Miller witnesses the rush for aid as it finally arrives in cut-off areas:

Kathmandu’s small international airport has been swamped and a serious backlog of aid has built up.

Severe incapacity there, in combination with difficulties posed by Nepal’s geographical challenges are cited by emergency response coordinators as the main reasons why stocks still haven’t reached those who most need it.

New drone footage shows the scale of the task facing the rebuilding effort for Nepal:

The Channel 4 News team in Nepal: Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller, producer Thom Walker, video journalist and photographer Raul Gallego Abellan and Aditya Mishra.