Two days after the devastating earthquake in Nepal, a story appeared in the local press about Bhaktapur, a historic city in the wider Kathmandu Valley. Ram and Maiya Baasi were outside their home, now reduced to rubble, searching for ways to get in and recover something, anything, of value. Their injured daughter was in the district hospital, and needed to be transferred to another. But all their money and resources lay buried in the ruins of their home. Others warned them not to get too close, as severe aftershocks continued. The mother insisted on going in, but could recover little. Meanwhile, next door, four corpses were found.
My family lives only a few miles away, but it was luckier. Our house remained intact, and my father, who has limited mobility, was able to stay safely indoors. My mother was travelling in the eastern hills and was unhurt; she returned home the next day. When I spoke to her over Skype, she said that the constant tremors and aftershocks frightened her, but my father spoke more calmly, about the uselessness of panic. Bhaktapur is only ten miles from the central government district, but for almost four days after the earthquake, the state still had not been able to assess the loss there, reach out to citizens, or send rescue teams to clear debris and provide a measure of relief.
The great earthquake, as the Nepalese press is calling it, measured 7.8 on the Richter scale; its epicenter was in a hill district eighty kilometres northwest of Kathmandu. The United Nations has estimated that more than a quarter of the country’s population, as many as eight million people, has been affected. By Monday evening, nine days after the earthquake, the government had declared that seven thousand three hundred and sixty-five people had died, fourteen thousand three hundred and sixty-six had been injured, and almost half a million had been displaced from their homes. The finance minister reported that more than ten thousand government buildings, including schools and health centers, were destroyed, and that thirteen thousand other buildings were damaged. The government estimates that more than two hundred thousand houses have been destroyed.