India & Natural Disaster Management

[Singha]

road in khowang, upper assam after the 1950 quake. its epicenter was in tibet just east of arunachal and measured some 8.6

[chaanakya]

Rahul Kanwal @rahulkanwal · 20h 20 hours ago

Away from the gaze of cameras @RSS_Org workers have been doing yeoman's service in providing relief material in quake hit Nepal. Commendable
2,052 retweets 994 favorites

[Aditya_V]

I think this photos are not good, they make Nepalis look weak and Helpless which is not true. I think they are in Bad taste.

[chaanakya]

Rahul Kanwal @rahulkanwal · 4h 4 hours ago

Residents queue up at @RSS_Org relief camp in quake ravaged Bhaktapur. 20000 people provided aid in this area.

[chaanakya]

Rahul Kanwal @rahulkanwal · 6h 6 hours ago

1000 swayamsevaks working round the clock on relief operations. 500 tons of relief material being brought in.

[Singha]

apparently 2 lakh people have abandoned Kathmandu only a small fraction will be indians.

nepalis whose homes were affected must be moving to homes of relatives elsewhere in the country.

[chaanakya]

Sitanshu Kar @SpokespersonMoD · 21m 21 minutes ago

#NepalEarthquake IAF's Helicopter effort so far today: 15 sorties/136 evac/53 casevac/64 induction/5.3 tons of relief material.
2 retweets 0 favorites
New Delhi, Delhi View translation
Sitanshu Kar @SpokespersonMoD · 23m 23 minutes ago

#NepalEarthquake 45 evacuated by IAF's MI 17 helicopters from Lukla.
3 retweets 3 favorites

[RamaY]

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDz2Dd-UEAIdclu.jpg[/img

The first people C17 flight had seats, I think. Now its sitting on the ground for all. Even the seats on each site are not used.

edit: yup, looks like.

[img]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDf2rtLUMAAm6oE.jpg[/]

I think the C17 must have carried some equipment/cargo on the way to Nepal and bringing survivors on way back. Hence the choice.

[chaanakya]

MSF Canada ‏@MSF_canada 9m9 minutes ago

Overnight, our cargo plane with our inflatable hospital landed in Kathmandu #NepalEarthquake http://www.msf.ca/Nepal

MSF currently has 61 staff members on the ground in Nepal.

On Tuesday, a team assessed the situation in Gorkha District Hospital, which has suffered damage from the earthquake. The in-patient department is destroyed. On Wednesday, a truck carrying a rapid surgical intervention kit left Kathmandu for Ghorka (200 kilometres north-east) now that the road has been re-opened. The surgical team is on their way to Ghorka to set up and begin responding to surgical needs ine area.

On Tuesday, a team assessed the Tudikhel makeshift camp in the centre of Kathmandu. The water and sanitation situation is concerning, with people having limited access to clean drinking water and the public toilets overflowing. In terms of medical needs at this camp, a team of doctors from Bir hospital (located opposite the camp) have set up a makeshift consultation area and are managing primary health care needs. Many of the people in the camp are from in and around Kathmandu, but there are also a number of migrant workers who can no longer stay in the temporary accommodation they normally have in the city. There are others in the camp who have come from outside Kathmandu after their villages were destroyed in the earthquake. MSF is looking into the water and sanitation situation in the camp urgently. ........

[chaanakya]

Everyone their own way

A truck laden with tarpaulin sheets stopped outside the Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City office on the fourth day of the deadly earthquake that killed thousands and made many homeless in central Nepal.

The truck was immediately swamped with hundreds of locals who had been living in the open after the earthquake damaged their houses. They jostled each other to grab the sheets, ultimately forcing police to chase them away with batons and cordon off the whole area.

Earthquake survivors were expecting at least a sheet for each family, and they were outraged when told that five families would have to share a sheet. They started shouting slogans against authorities: “We’re not refugees, treat us like citizens of this country.”

As the authorities were trying to convince earthquake survivors that they did not have enough relief material eight trucks full of tarpaulin sheets and food were parked in the premises of an Armed Police Force (APF) base in Satdobato, Lalitpur.

“We asked the APF officers to distribute relief right away,” says Sishir Gurung, a local resident. “But they said they had yet not got orders to do so.”

The lack of coordination between government agencies has not only hampered relief distribution but also rescue efforts. As of now, 15 countries have sent their rescue missions to Nepal but there is little coordination from the Nepali side as to where to deploy them.

On Tuesday, when a team of French rescuers was pulling out a man alive from under the rubble of a collapsed hotel building in Gongabu, a Turkish medical team also reached the same place. The Turks wanted to help but the French rejected their support. The French requested Nepal’s APF to send the Turks away.

“The dispute briefly interrupted rescue work,” said a Nepali police officer helping the French team. “The French did not want to share the credit for rescuing a man alive after 82 hours, and the Turks also wanted it.”

On Wednesday morning, locals in Gongabu informed rescuers that they saw signs of a girl still alive under the rubble of a collapsed building in Gongabu itself. But the APF team did not act with the urgency demanded because he hadn’t got the orders.

Saturday’s earthquake, worst after 1934, left over 5,500 people dead and over 10,000 wounded. The death toll could reach higher as rescue teams have yet not been able to reach many far-flung villages of Gorkha, Dhading, Lamjung, Nuwakot and Ramechhap districts.

As thousands of families wait for rescue and relief in remote areas, earthquake survivors are left high and dry even in Kathmandu Valley. “The mighty have received relief, the helpless have not,” says Ram Adhikari, who was hoping to get a tarpaulin sheet outside the sub-metropolitan office, Lalitpur. “We see no one who distributes relief equitably.”

In Nepal, lack of coordination is always a challenge when it comes to dealing with disasters. Saturday’s earthquake has exposed how much worse it can be. Two days after the earthquake, Information and Communication Minister Minendra Rijal conceded lack of coordination on the part of the government and promised to do better from Wednesday. But these things change slowly.

Om Astha Rai

[chaanakya]

The Kathmandu Post retweeted
Mike McRoberts @MrMikeMcRoberts · 9h 9 hours ago

This amazing woman tells me she lost everything in the earthquake, and then offers me lunch. Humbling. #Nepal #3News

[chaanakya]

Great Earthquake wipes out Barpak

Delicate times at Kavre and Sindhupalchowk

- SUDIP KAINI

BARPAK, GORKHA, APR 30 - In the aftermath of the devastating quake on Saturday, local Gothelal Gurung, 66, of Mandre, Barpak VDC was found roaming around a pile of rubble that once used to be his home. Heart wrenching as it is, the site is also the burial ground for seven of his family members including his son, grandchildren and others. He had buried the seven after finding no one to help perform their final rites.

“The quake of epic proportion turned the whole village into a crematory,” Gurung said.

All 65 houses in Rangrung VDC, located along the route to Barpak via Mandre have been destroyed. “Almost all the land surface in the area has developed cracks and Mandre is the worst hit in Barpak ,” said Police Inspector Deepak Shrestha involved in rescue operations, adding that he was unable to confirm whether the epicentre was Barpak or Mandre.

[chaanakya]

Youths rise to occasion

- DEWAN RAI

KATHMANDU, APR 30 - In the aftermath of the Great Earthquake, Nepali youth s have sprung into action, determined to leave their mark in much-needed rescue and relief operations.

Over 50,000 youth volunteers are involved in the Capital alone, according to youth organisations. Additional volunteers from local clubs and youth groups are engaged in a wide range of activities--from cleaning up roads and setting up toilets at temporary shelters to distributing medical supplies.

[Shreeman]

A 5.0 Haiti scale Poo-flinging event has ocurred as predicted by seismofecalogist. The worst affected areas are around the epicenter in kathmandu, but the effects are being felt as far as new delhi. Further events of higher magnitude, and aftershocks in form of strong gas bursts are inevitable. Scientists are also warning of diseases such as the brain eating amoeba.

ps -- sorry, singha. The news and social media have degenerated completely in last 24h.

[chaanakya]

Quake CCTV footage. Notice how crack appears on the road at 1.12

[chaanakya]

What happens to children displaced after a disaster?

By Laura Wignall
Newsbeat reporter

7h
7 hours ago
Share this article
Displaced children sheltering in Nepal

The earthquake in Nepal has affected more than 1.7 million children who require urgent humanitarian assistance, according to Unicef.

The death toll from the 7.8 quake is now above 5,000 but the Nepalese government said it could reach 10,000.

With makeshift tent cities set up for those displaced, young people are more at risk of abduction and abuse.

The global charity says it is imperative that children get protection in these disaster situations.
Makeshift tents in Nepal
Image caption Tent cities being set up in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu

Susan Bissell, Chief of Child Protection for Unicef said to Newsbeat that their "first priority is getting children reunited with their parents or carers and provide immediate protection", then to "create save havens to prevent abduction or trafficking and other dangers".

She said: "We rely on local law enforcement to make sure areas [where the makeshift tents are housed] are well lit and girls and women are not travelling around on their own."

Kent Page for Unicef in Kathmandu said to Newsbeat: "Children have been through a very traumatic experience, I was here for the aftershock and it was terrifying so what they've gone through, I just can't imagine."

Kent described scenes at the hospital where he met one girl called Punya, who is seven.

"She was buried under the rubble of her home for 36 hours before she was found with two other people who had died.

"Her arm had been amputated at the shoulder, but I spent time with her and she was able to laugh and smile."
An injured girl outside Kathmandu hospital
Image caption An injured girl outside Kathmandu hospital

9,700 people have been reported hurt so far, but many have life-changing injuries.

Kent said a major issue is the trauma the children have gone through.

They are providing "psychosocial support" for children and families to "address immediate severe distress to begin to restore a sense of normalcy and to build resilience".

Kent has worked in many disaster situations but he said "the most surprising thing was that they do not want to leave the tent cities".

"I've spoken to 20 children and they all said 'no' they didn't want to go home, which hasn't been the case in other disasters.

"There is still a fear that there will be another earthquake, children are very afraid... they prefer the heat and mosquitoes, they feel safer here."
Girl saving belongings from destroyed home
Image caption Girl saving belongings from destroyed home

UN Women said that the loss of homes and shelter often leaves women particularly vulnerable to violence after humanitarian disasters, their focus will also be on "providing protection for women and girls in camps and elsewhere".

On 8 November 2013, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines left 1.7 million children displaced.

Unicef reports that trafficking and other forms of gender-based violence were among the most acute risks for women and children.

Another issue was birth certificates being lost or destroyed which meant that many children were denied health care or education.

This lack of official identification documentation makes it more difficult to stop laws to prevent early marriage or forced child labour.

The charity worked to bring structured psychosocial support for children and make sure environments were protective and child friendly.

In the first months after the typhoon, many children were identified as unaccompanied or separated using Rapid Family Tracing technology and Unicef says they are using this technology in Nepal.
Boy on mountain top

Sexual attacks were "rife" in the makeshift camps set up after the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 because there was no security or protection, according to Amnesty International.

Only a small proportion of acts of violence, exploitation and abuse, especially in emergency situations, are reported and investigated, and few perpetrators are held accountable according to the charity.

But Kent said Nepal is a "very different situation" to Haiti and it can't really be compared because of the "different culture" and "different customs".

The immediate issue is to get "as many people in shelters as possible because it's very hot during the day... the monsoons come in June which is not long away".

"There's still a fear there will be another earthquake, there hasn't been any more tremors so far in 36 hours."

[arshyam]

^^Needless to say, they have never heard of someone with the name Ramdev.

[Gus]

FB link removed

"I felt the Earthquake when I was at the Kathmandu airport, waiting to board my flight. The first thing I saw was a young man, running through the gate's glass door which had jammed. Next thing I knew, an air conditioner fell on my back, but luckily I was wearing a backpack that saved me. Everyone at the airport spent the next few hours on the runway, constantly feeling tremors. We left the airport to go back to our hotel, but it had been badly affected...so we returned to the airport, where the Indian Embassy officials were systematically planning our evacuation."
"To everyone who has doubted the Indian Government my message is this - I wouldn't be alive today without the Indian Air Force. Can you actually believe that, the real hindrance in the evacuation process were us Indian citizens who created complete chaos and showed no faith. The IAF officials were sending pregnant women, senior citizens and families with children on the first flights...but there were so many who were pushing to get ahead, offering bribes, screaming and fighting to leave first.
Our Indian Air Force and the Military Personnel are the real heroes. They have carried luggage, senior citizens and wheel chairs on their back to make sure the flights left on time and this is in addition to swiftly removing resources from the flights that were coming in.
I landed in Delhi at 12:00 that night and at 12:15 sharp the same flight left to get back more people...and those 5 flights kept relentlessly making their way up and down this route.
When will we appreciate them? When will we realize that money cannot buy our way out of everything? and most importantly when will we realize that there are people who chose the option of staying back to help purely out of humanity, and no amount of money in the world could have bought that?"

[Shreeman]

Israel's take: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-ai ... -countrys/

[Shreeman]

deleted -- facebook links dont work outside without extra tracking information

[chaanakya]

Vikas Swarup @MEAIndia · 3h 3 hours ago

#OperationMaitri The facts till date.

[chaanakya]

Sitanshu Kar @SpokespersonMoD · 60m 60 minutes ago

#NepalEarthquake 40 tons of Ready-2- Eat Meals, given by Gujarat govt r being loaded now 4 a late night flight 2 KTM.

[Amber G.]

Israel's take: http://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-ai ... -countrys/

Wow! (There are quite a few comments there - which are better)

[Amber G.]

Some photographs, and other data from esa...
>>>Released 29/04/2015 4:50 pm
( Contains Copernicus data (2015)/ESA/Norut/PPO.labs/COMET–ESA SEOM INSARAP study)


Combining two Sentinel-1A radar scans from 17 and 29 April 2015, this interferogram shows changes on the ground that occurred during the 25 April earthquake that struck Nepal. An overall area of 120x100 km has moved – half of that uplifted and the other half, north of Kathmandu subsided. Vertical accuracy is a few cm!




^^^ The big swaths of color actually mean less movement. The part where there are a lot of lines mean a lot of movement. Each successive color progression (eg purple to again purple) means a full wavelength shift, which is about 6 cm shift. That’s why one sees a very tight spacing of lines around Kathmandu.

***

Also: (Please click below to see the picture .. as it is large)
SPoRT Satellite Image as Detected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Sensor of the Post Kathmandu Earthquake.(April 29)
The image below shows a decrease in emitted light over the city of Kathmandu and surrounding areas as detected by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) “Day-Night Band” sensor aboard the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite, derived from a comparison of pre-earthquake (22 April 2015) and post-earthquake (26 April 2015) imagery. In this percent of normal product, the warm colors (red – yellow) indicate the largest reduced light emissions in the post-event image, possibly due to damage to electrical infrastructure. Towns and suburban areas around Kathmandu show the larger percentage of reduced light emission. Input satellite data were obtained in collaboration with the NASA Suomi NPP Science Investigator-led Processing System activities at the University of Wisconsin.

This information can help relief operations determine areas that may be affected by electrical outages.

April 29 Kathmandu SPoRT image

***
Another one..
SPoRT Satellite Imagery of Post Earthquake on April 29

[Shreeman]

Oxfam International ‏@Oxfam 8m8 minutes ago

LATEST: We're trucking aid into #Nepal from India for the first timehttp://oxf.am/ZMbs

edit --

Israel pledges to rebuild entire Nepalese village, Chabad feeds 2,000 in a day

Israelis are into serious image management.

[Shreeman]

Look, a helicopter.

[Shreeman]

[prahaar]

The Kathmandu Post retweeted
Mike McRoberts @MrMikeMcRoberts · 9h 9 hours ago

This amazing woman tells me she lost everything in the earthquake, and then offers me lunch. Humbling. #Nepal #3News

Dignified in tragedy. "Atithi Devo Bhava" in practice.

[Shreeman]

A little yellow trolley.

[Shreeman]

Now for a side view.

[deejay]

Look, a helicopter.

Oh boy! That is some landing, table top on the edge. The winds would have toyed with this helicopter. Salute, people. Doing a good job. Happy Landings.

Thank You Shreeman ji. All pics have been informative but this one is surely a keeper.

[Shreeman]

The three quarters view from below?

[Shreeman]

deejay:

I had more or less tuned out of it all, and then the trembler hit. Now I am even more tuned out, damn the greedy ******** (Dial GREEDYBITCH#$ to donate $5 to SaveZeChildrenPk).

By the way reading urdu twitter is both illuminating and more disgusting than regular twitter.

[deejay]

^^^ Some more urdu lessons needed saar!!!. OT here, but keep the faith. There is still lot of good to be positive ( really positive). Have extended family in Nepal. I stayed over in their house in Kathmandu a year and half back. The house is a mess now. They escaped.

On the whole, my folks will survive and recover. It is the hills which will keep sliding and those rock slides and avalanches with the tiniest of rains will continue long after. God help those villages!!! It shook even yesterday morning (that is the last I heard).

Re: Indian help - It is appreciated. But all this breast beating of how well we did it is not going down well. Take it the way you want. That is how it is. Nepal will always look to India for help - geo politics be dammed. We use their men as soldiers, watchmen, labour and their women ... They know it and we know it. It is best to treat it as our effort to save ourselves. The others will be gone shortly. Some will stay to do one up-manship. We must not make it a 'Big Brother' act because we will be there for long if not always.

[Shreeman]

a random indian state govt will do more than the rest of the lot combined: @UPGovt contributions:


500 Solar lamps




help "stuff" - More essential commodities being sent to Kathmandu from gorakhpur




Medical team from KGMU helping the patients in quake affected areas of Nepal.




More essential supplies being sent to Kathmandu for the NepalQuake affected; more medical supplies to be sent soon.




#NepalEarthquake relief camp at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College Gorakhpur. Food preparation for #NepalEarthquake victims at Gorakhpur relief camp.



Volunteers cooking Chapati for #NepalEarthquake victims at #Gorakhpur Relief Camp.



More buses on the way. 110 buses of UPRTC per day enroute for Kathmandu for further evacuation. Yesterday 4000 Indians returned to India via road.

There is sort of a competition between Gujarat, Panjab, Delhi and Haryana, at least, if not including more states, of trying to push in as much aid as possible. This includes people -- doctors, langars, volunteers; food -- dry, uncooked, cooked, high energy, whatever; clothes and tents; medications; equipment -- basically anything you can think of.

Deejay: Good luck to you, time heals all and this will need quite a bit of effort to overcome.

Not to sound "out to touch", but I too have had plenty of interactions high and low with Nepalis. Our college cooks (like most such folks) were Nepali too, and I was a mess coordinator for a while and I survived solely on the food they cooked for nearly four years. Our *tiny* mess arrangement wasn't one where you walked in and ate. You actually bought supplies with them, designed the meals, and helped in every way except for the actual cooking. They lived in the same wing with the same resources and conditions as we did, there was no distinction. I note this only because this was during formative years, and for a very extended period of time.

Re. the help, the chest beating is not for internal use. It is for external use. There are $$B being doled out by the phoren public to all and sundry "charities".

See:

AJC ‏@AJCGlobal Apr 28

Per @CNN, #Israel has sent more rescue personnel to #Nepal than any other country.

This equals AID dollars and donations.

China already has a stranglehold on reconstruction in Nepal. There was inertia for status quo before the walls came tumbling down. Now, expect all manner of communist training camps, mosques and churches (sorry, faith based schools) if India does not take a central role. These guys are hampered in the short term of equating Nepali == sherpa. But they are adaptive. When the shine wears off and ordinary people struggle, then a religious book+food+clothing == huge temptation. It will need staying power or Nepal wont look anything like what it was pre April 24.

edit - Most Nepalis (and most Indians) have very poor understanding of the aid dynamic. Heck the Indian state and central governments dont really understand the NGO business. Each assumes there is some "good faith" charity involved. Where would it come from? Religion -- each involved here requires evangelism and is wholly incompatible with Nepali culture, the orphaned kids would be at greater risk with them, check Haiti camps. Society -- watching Baltimore are we? Governments -- check Haiti, somalia, Mali, Sudan, ... . There are a larger number of people in worse shape, and more arriving across the mediterranean every day in the same shape as the Nepalis, with similar % of deaths in the sea immediately before. Seen any outcry?

What makes Nepal so special, that they would do something different? Yet, each is jostling for "leadership". The CAG style bean counting is the only thing that can be shoved into their face to make them see sense. Those helping are NOT the ones counting what is being handed out.

[Shreeman]

CNN Breaking News ‏@cnnbrk 11m11 minutes ago

In Nepal, villages beyond roads' end are cut off from all help, and only the healthy can make it to aid stations. http://cnn.it/1GB1YJc

This is why you need a rotary UAV in India. There are always people who can use them, but there arent quick ways of getting those resources to them.

[Shreeman]

All India Radio News ‏@airnewsalerts 4h4 hours ago

#NepalEarthquake: Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and NSA Doval to visit Kathmandu today to oversee relief operations.

[Shreeman]

Look see:

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/54 ... witterfeed

Rivals India, China win hearts, minds in quake-hit Nepal

....
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has promised to "wipe the tears of every Nepali" while the country's air force alone has sent 950 personnel and dropped more than 400 tonnes of aid across the country.

India's hyperactive media have devoted hours to the country's assistance, including plucking stranded climbers from Everest base camp. But analyst Rajrishi Singhal said India's efforts involved a degree of self-interest.
....

[chaanakya]

That was some Landing. Seeing it I almost skipped a beat. I mean wow. ALH seems to be doing great. Feel proud. The other ALH bearing number 054 photographed with Indian MI17 was the one gifted by NaMo on to Nepal on his last visit.

[chaanakya]

The Indian Express ‏@IndianExpress 3h3 hours ago

Tomorrow, it will be a week since #NepalEarthquake. Here is our full coverage
http://indianexpress.com/topic/nepal-earthquake-2/ …
The Indian Express