Earthquake leaves thousands in Nepal sleeping under open sky

Thousands of people in western Nepal’s mountainous region were forced to spend Saturday night under the open sky in the biting cold after a strong earthquake in the area killed 157 people and left a trail of destruction.
Bhawana Pun, who woke up Friday midnight after her house was shaken by the 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the Nalgad Municipality of Jajarkot district, still recalls the terror due to which she could not sleep on Saturday night too.
The whole night she witnessed the vehicular movement on the road and the snoring of her neighbours who were sleeping in the open near her place.
She had no courage to go inside the cracked house as aftershocks were occurring time and again.
“The houses have been severely damaged (because of the earthquake). Thus, people are sitting outside of their houses,” said a local resident from Jajarkot, the epicentre of the earthquake, the most devastating in the country since 2015.
Jajarkot, about 500km northwest of Kathmandu, and Rukum districts of western Nepal were worst affected by the quake. About 253 people were injured in the quake. Around 159 aftershocks were recorded on Saturday, Nepal’s National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Centre said.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has dispatched initial relief supplies via the Army’s helicopters.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ on Saturday toured the quake-hit region with a medical team.
During the visit, he gathered information about the extent of the damage and inspected the affected areas. Later, he returned to Surkhet from Jajarkot, along with seven injured people and their family members.
The Nepal government has said it is not in a hurry to seek foreign help for search and rescue operations and in the management of relief distribution and other logistics in the wake of the devastating earthquake.
“We are yet to make any decision on accepting foreign aid,” Prachanda said during the visit to the quake-affected areas. Speaking to the Kathmandu Post newspaper, a government secretary said the country is capable of dealing with the aftermath of the disaster.
“We have enough stock of logistical materials that we received during the Covid pandemic. We have trained personnel and enough supplies for relief and rehabilitation,” the secretary said.
Prime Minister Prachanda chaired a Cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss a special relief package for earthquake victims. The government had previously allocated Rs. 50 million to each of the severely affected Jajarkot and Rukum West districts for immediate relief.
The disaster management committee is scheduled to meet after the Cabinet session. Security agencies, working with local authorities and humanitarian organizations, have mobilized search and rescue teams following the earthquake.
Nearly 4,000 personnel from the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, and Nepal Police were deployed in Jajarkot and Rukum for rescue operations, supported by volunteers from organizations like the Nepal Red Cross Society. Relief distribution will parallel search and rescue efforts, utilizing five aircraft for transport.