Aid Begins to Arrive in Nepal After Deadly Quake
International rescue crews and relief agencies are beginning to arrive in Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, two days after a massive earthquake rattled the country, killing more than 3,600 people and injuring several thousand others.
VOA correspondent Steve Herman is on his way to the capital aboard a flight carrying 70 members of Japan’s national search and rescue team. Because of the “congestion” caused by a number of military planes attempting to land at Kathmandu’s airport, his plane could not land and was re-routed to Kolkata for re-fueling.
Herman said the flight has been warned to expect a “chaotic situation” at Kathmandu’s airport with a control tower that is evacuated during aftershocks and where people who are trying to leave the country have taken to the tarmac.
Oxfam executive Helen Szoke told VOA that the earthquake has given Nepal what she described as a “double hit.” She said the country’s destroyed infrastructure will not support the tourism industry that Nepal depends on. Szoke said this is something that often occurs in these “humanitarian tragedies.”