DISASTER RESPONSE
April 26, 2015. The second earthquake hit this afternoon, and everybody started screaming. Everyone is afraid that there is going to be another, stronger earthquake. My nieces and nephews keep asking us, “Is there going to be another earthquake? Are we going to die?” We tell them that it will be okay, but they don’t believe us. Today I had just told my 10-year-old nephew Aarjan not to worry, that it won’t happen again, and then the earthquake hit. All the children were crying, and my nephew looked at me and said “You promised it wouldn’t happen again!” What should I say to them?
Last night, we all slept outside. We are too afraid to sleep inside. Everyone is in the streets, sleeping outside. Nobody could sleep, because the aftershocks were happening quite frequently and wake us up. We probably won’t be able to sleep tonight either. People are trying to find more open spaces, because we’re sleeping in the yard next to the house and we’re afraid our houses will collapse. People thinking maybe we should move to more open spaces, away from the houses.
People have started building stocks of food and water. Small grocery shops shut because of the quake, but they’re starting to open again now. Here, our water supply depends on electricity. The electricity was out yesterday, so we had no water. But today we had electricity. So we collected water out and stored it in tanks near the house.
The biggest need right now is medical help because hospitals are crowded. My cousin is a doctor. He says the situation is very bad, and there are so many dead bodies at the hospital. They are putting up tents outside the hospital to treat injured people. Shelter and tarps are important. People are taking care of themselves right now, using blankets for shelter. But the monsoon rains will start in one month, and that will make the situation very bad if people’s houses are destroyed. It’s quite cold at night. We’re wearing our jackets and using all our blankets, and the children were complaining of the cold. But none of them have asked to go back inside the house. They’re too scared.
Photo credit – Glyn Riley/CARE
By Grishma Raj Aryal,
CARE Nepal Communications Officer in Kathmandu
