CNN says a reporter, Manesh Shrestha in Kathmandu — a city of some 2.5 million — was injured and went for stitches at a hospital where he saw the bodies of persons who had been killed in the earthquake. The hospital was crowded, with patients being treated outside.
There are still reports of voices calling out and voices wailing. Many buildings toppled and people were said to pour out onto the streets after the quake.
It’s unclear exactly how long the shaking lasted – some reports say up to two minutes – but it was lengthy and “violent.” The tremors were felt in New Delhi, India, 200 miles away, and in Lahore, Pakistan (44 dead in Pakistan). There were avalanches on nearby Mt. Everest and climbers scrambled from tents to move into safety and at least 10 are dead there; other reports put the death toll at Everest base camp at 18.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) originally reported the size of the quake as 7.5 but later upgraded it to 7.9. The major impact hit at a depth of 7 to 9 miles, considered a shallow quake, which makes for a more powerful impact on the surface. The USGS reports aftershocks measuring 5.1, 6.6 and 6.7. These aftershocks by Monday were so bad people, including foreigners, were trying to find ways to flee the quake zone, not easy to do with so many roads closed and transportation methods shut down.
The New York Times wrote that “The nine-story Dharahara Tower…built in 1832 as a watchtower on the orders of the then-queen, collapsed” and when the quake struck “200 people had bought tickets to climb up to a viewing platform on the eighth story (and) several dozen were likely on the platform when the earthquake hit.” A witness said “scores probably died.”
Nepal is in a region of the world in which earthquakes occur often and in past years they have taken the lives of tens of thousands. One quake, in 1905, took the lives of some 100,000 in the area. Saturday’s quake was the strongest to hit Nepal in 81 years.