Post by Admin on May 12, 2015 13:15:14 GMT
Earthquake strikes again: Kathmandu & Dolakha district, Nepal: Tuesday May 12, 2015.
117 dead, more than a thousand are injured, with many victims in the Dolakha district where the US chopper was lost on the same day.
A US Marines helicopter that crashed into a mountainside in Nepal was completely destroyed and there were no survivors among the eight on board, Nepal’s top defence official said on Friday. Three charred bodies were found in the wreckage of the UH-1Y Huey that went missing on Tuesday while on a mission to deliver aid to victims of two earthquakes, Defence Secretary Ishwori Prasad Paudyal told Reuters. The Marine Corps UH-1Y Huey was spotted near the village of Ghorthali at an altitude of 11,200ft (3,400m), an army general told Reuters earlier, as helicopters and Nepali ground troops converged on the crash site. US Pacific Command said a Nepali search team had identified possible wreckage of a downed aircraft approximately 24km north of the town of Charikot, which lies half a day’s drive to the east of the capital Kathmandu. A first earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th with a magnitude of 7.8 has killed 8,199 people. The death toll from a 7.3 aftershock on Tuesday has reached 117, with many victims in the Dolakha district where the US chopper was lost on the same day.
The combined toll is approaching the number of just over 8,500 who died in an earthquake in 1934, the worst ever natural disaster to hit the poor Himalayan nation.
Some 76,000 more have been hurt while hundreds of thousands of buildings - including ancient temples and monuments - have been damaged or destroyed. Nearly three weeks after the first quake, aftershocks continue to rattle the country.
Nepal mobilised 600 soldiers to search for the Huey, which had six Marines and two Nepali soldiers on board when it went missing after the crew was heard over the radio saying that the aircraft was experiencing a fuel problem.
Two more U.S. Hueys, two MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor planes and Nepali and Indian choppers had been involved in the search for the helicopter, which was part of a joint task force sent in by the United States to provide assistance at Nepal’s request.
Tuesday's magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck at a depth of about 15 kilometers (9 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. For comparison's sake, the 7.8 quake on April 25 -- which killed more than 8,000 people -- was more than three times bigger and 5.6 times stronger, in terms of energy released, according to the agency.
As bad as this latest nightmare has been, it's not necessarily over. The fact such a big quake hit so soon after the one last month is proof that another one -- perhaps bigger, perhaps smaller -- could come at any time.
To drive home this point, residents in the region dealt with a number of powerful aftershocks, including one at magnitude 6.3, after the initial quake struck around midday.
'People were very scared' in Kathmandu
The epicenter of the new earthquake was about 45 miles (75 kilometers) east of Kathmandu, the Nepali capital where many buildings were destroyed in the earlier quake.
Tuesday's earthquake struck roughly 50 miles (85 kilometers) from Mount Everest, where the April quake set off deadly avalanches.
117 dead, more than a thousand are injured, with many victims in the Dolakha district where the US chopper was lost on the same day.
A US Marines helicopter that crashed into a mountainside in Nepal was completely destroyed and there were no survivors among the eight on board, Nepal’s top defence official said on Friday. Three charred bodies were found in the wreckage of the UH-1Y Huey that went missing on Tuesday while on a mission to deliver aid to victims of two earthquakes, Defence Secretary Ishwori Prasad Paudyal told Reuters. The Marine Corps UH-1Y Huey was spotted near the village of Ghorthali at an altitude of 11,200ft (3,400m), an army general told Reuters earlier, as helicopters and Nepali ground troops converged on the crash site. US Pacific Command said a Nepali search team had identified possible wreckage of a downed aircraft approximately 24km north of the town of Charikot, which lies half a day’s drive to the east of the capital Kathmandu. A first earthquake that struck Nepal on April 25th with a magnitude of 7.8 has killed 8,199 people. The death toll from a 7.3 aftershock on Tuesday has reached 117, with many victims in the Dolakha district where the US chopper was lost on the same day.
The combined toll is approaching the number of just over 8,500 who died in an earthquake in 1934, the worst ever natural disaster to hit the poor Himalayan nation.
Some 76,000 more have been hurt while hundreds of thousands of buildings - including ancient temples and monuments - have been damaged or destroyed. Nearly three weeks after the first quake, aftershocks continue to rattle the country.
Nepal mobilised 600 soldiers to search for the Huey, which had six Marines and two Nepali soldiers on board when it went missing after the crew was heard over the radio saying that the aircraft was experiencing a fuel problem.
Two more U.S. Hueys, two MV-22B Osprey tilt-rotor planes and Nepali and Indian choppers had been involved in the search for the helicopter, which was part of a joint task force sent in by the United States to provide assistance at Nepal’s request.
Tuesday's magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck at a depth of about 15 kilometers (9 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said. For comparison's sake, the 7.8 quake on April 25 -- which killed more than 8,000 people -- was more than three times bigger and 5.6 times stronger, in terms of energy released, according to the agency.
As bad as this latest nightmare has been, it's not necessarily over. The fact such a big quake hit so soon after the one last month is proof that another one -- perhaps bigger, perhaps smaller -- could come at any time.
To drive home this point, residents in the region dealt with a number of powerful aftershocks, including one at magnitude 6.3, after the initial quake struck around midday.
'People were very scared' in Kathmandu
The epicenter of the new earthquake was about 45 miles (75 kilometers) east of Kathmandu, the Nepali capital where many buildings were destroyed in the earlier quake.
Tuesday's earthquake struck roughly 50 miles (85 kilometers) from Mount Everest, where the April quake set off deadly avalanches.