Tag Archives: Earthquake

Earthquake Strikes Off Papua New Guinea

A powerful earthquake struck Papua New Guinea on Tuesday morning generating a small tsunami near the epicenter.

Officials with the Geophysical Observatory in Port Moresby said that the tsunami was 3 feet high and struck in the harbor of Rabaul.  The tsunami caused no flooding and it did not pass the level of the high tide.

The magnitude 7.5 quake struck around 1:45 a.m. local time.

The quake happened along the tectonic plate under Australia and its overriding Pacific plates.  The quake has been preceded by a series of quakes along the fault line that started with a magnitude 7.5 quake on March 29, 2015.

Local officials say there was no widespread damage because of the quake but power lines were brought down in the area of Rabaul.  In Kokopo, buildings were reported with cracks in the walls and other structural damage but there were no reports of injuries.

The quake site is along the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Nepal Teen Rescued After 5 Days Under Rubble

Rescuers were calling it a miracle that a teenager was found alive after five days buried under rubble in Nepal.

Pemba Tamang, 15, was buried under the rubble of a seven-story building in the capital of Kathmandu since Sunday when the structure collapsed during the main earthquake.  He was described as “dazed and dusty.”

Tamang was alert and able to speak with rescuers as he was lifted from the rubble on a stretcher.

“He thanked me when I first approached him,” police officer L.B. Basnet told reporters. “He told me his name, his address, and I gave him some water. I assured him we were near to him.”

Tamang told the AP he had been working in the building when it fell and that he survived by eating a form of butter.

Residents in the area have been nervous about entering buildings as aftershocks continue to shake the region.  Scientists say that 70 aftershocks have struck since the main quake.

“It’s getting back to normal, but we’re still feeling aftershocks. It still doesn’t feel safe,” said Prabhu Dutta, a 27-year-old banker from Kathmandu.

The rescue of Tamang was a high point to start the day for the rescuers who ended on a high note as well when they pulled a young woman in her 20s from a building near Kathmandu’s bus terminals.

Krishna Devi Khadka has not yet spoken with the media.

Police say the death toll is now officially 5,858 not counting anyone who died on Mount Everest.

Nepal Family Loses 18 Members in Earthquake

Stories of tragedy from Nepal continue to make their way out of the devastated region.  The latest involves one family that lost 18 members in the quake when a house fell in upon them.

Shankar Pradhan shared his story with the Associated Press as he stood by a funeral pyre for the members of his family.  He had just finished pouring holy water on the feet and lips of his 21-year-old daughter who died in the quake.  She was inside the four-story home of Shankar’s brother when it fell.

“I don’t know why this happened. But I don’t blame anyone. I don’t blame the government, I don’t blame the gods,” he said, struggling to fight back tears. “You can’t escape the rules of this life. None of us escape the fact that one day you’ll have to leave it.”

The family had gathered inside the home to prepare for the start of a weeklong prayer session for peace and safety.

Krishna Lal Shrestha, who was inside the home at the time of the quake decorating a four foot tall marble temple with flowers, said the quake struck violently causing him to be thrown to the ground.  He tried to crawl back to save relatives but a wave of the quake threw him out the door and to safety.

He had to watch helplessly in horror as the floors collapsed one by one on top of each other.

The family said that the death toll would have been significantly higher if the quake struck an hour later when over 100 relatives were expected to be at the home.

Rescue efforts into the region are still being hampered although some of the villages next to the capital were able to get food and water.  One town 40 miles from the capital, Sipa Ghat, was reported by the Wall Street Journal to still be without any relief at all including food and clean drinking water.

“We are trying to send rescue teams. We are trying our best to clear the roads,” said Kamal Singh Bam, a spokesman for Nepal’s national police. “There is a problem with distribution to people who are not in Katmandu.”

The situation is still critical in the capital as doctors say they are running out of medication and medical supplies.

Nepal Death Toll Over 5,000; Survivors Struggling To Survive

The death toll from the weekend earthquake and aftershock in Nepal has flown past 5,000 and is not showing signs of slowing down as rescuers say it’s almost impossible to reach some of the more rural regions because of landslides.

The aid group Samaritan’s Purse says that at least 8 million people are in immediate need of food and water.  A spokesman said that many of the families have lost everything they owned and have no way to support themselves.

“There are a lot of people sleeping out in the streets,” said Samaritan’s Purse team leader Patrick Seger in a report from Tuesday. “They are fearful of the buildings and don’t want to sleep inside. They are sleeping in the rain because they don’t have any other shelter.”

The BBC reported that the government is attempting to provide free services to the residents but they have no way of providing to all those impacted.

“There’s a rush to get out of Kathmandu. Thousands of people are trying to flee — some trying to head out to the remote districts to see how their families are, others including tourists trying to head toward India by road,” BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder said.

“But there simply aren’t enough buses to take them out and the highways are choked with vehicles, people and relief convoys. Tempers are flaring. The police came to the bus station to restrain those trying to board crowded buses, which made it worse.”

The Gorkha district, where the epicenter was located, is out of food.

“We haven’t had any food here since the earthquake,” said Sita Gurung, whose lost his home in Gorkha. “We don’t have anything left here.”

An Army spokesman told reporters they are trying their best to reach the region but admitted remote areas are trapped by terrain.

Nepal “On War Footing”

The prime minister of Nepal is telling reporters that his country is “on war footing” as they work to recover victims of the weekend earthquake and aftershocks.

Sushii Koirala told Reuters was “doing all it can for rescue and relief” in a “difficult hour.”  He said that he was making requests to every nation around the globe for help in rescuing citizens trapped in rural areas.

Koirala said that many of the requests from rural areas are having to be denied because they do not have the heavy equipment necessary to reach the victims.  The lack of available resources likely means an increase in the death toll.

The death toll from the quake has officially passed 5,000 and over 10,000 have been confirmed to have suffered injuries.

Nepal’s home ministry reports at leave 500,000 people have been displaced by the quake.  However, the United Nations puts the estimates significantly higher.

“Eight million people in 39 districts have been affected, of which over two million people live in the 11 severely affected districts,” said the most recent report from the UN Office of the Resident Co-ordinator in Nepal.

Relief workers in Gortha, which was located next to the epicenter, say that 90% of the town has been leveled.  Most residents do not have access to clean water or food.

Aftershocks are continuing to hit the region causing minor landslides that are hampering relief efforts.  The government has declared three days of mourning for the dead.

California Prepares for the Next Big Earthquake

Scientists are admitting the likelihood of a massive earthquake along the San Andreas Fault is higher than previous predictions.

The Third Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Forecast, released in March, states that newly discovered fault zones could see a quake jumping between them.  The cascading quake could reach an earthquake of 8.0 or greater.

The odds of a mega-quake increased from 4.7 percent to 7 percent.

The report also said that the odds of a medium level quake has decreased along the lines of the increase of a massive quake.

The southern section of the San Andreas Fault has not seen a massive earthquake in almost 300 years.  The last major quake along the fault took place in 1989 near Santa Cruz, California during Game 3 of the 1989 World Series.   63 people died in that earthquake.  The state’s last major quake overall was the 1994 Northridge quake along a previously undiscovered fault line that left 57 dead and 5,000 injured.

California’s Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says that he worries about the next “big one.”

“If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it’s the strong likelihood of a large earthquake,” he said.

Amazingly, despite the fact the state is hit with 1,000 earthquakes a year (most of very small magnitude), only 11 percent of homeowners and renters in the state have earthquake insurance.  Only a comparable number of businesses have insurance.

“It has been 21 years since the last major earthquake in the state and many rationalise that they can do without,” Robert Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute said.  “Unfortunately, too many seem willing to play Russian roulette with what is likely to be their most valuable asset, their home.”

Nepal Death Toll Over 4,000

The death toll in the massive Nepal earthquake and aftershock has passed the 4,000 mark and local officials say it’s likely to continue a fast rise over the next few days.

Almost every member of the Nepalese military has been dispatched for search and rescue operations with focus on villages that have been inaccessible due to debris and damage.

Officials have now confirmed at least 7,000 people have been injured as a result of the quakes.  The hospitals are full and tent surgical theaters and treatment tents have been set up in the parking areas and open fields near the hospitals.

The Nepalese government has sent out an emergency call for “tents, dry goods, blankets, mattresses and 80 different medicines”.

The United States announced Monday an additional $9 million in relief supplies for the rescue effort.  China, India and Pakistan have sent emergency response teams to the region.  International aid agencies say that Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand have also contributed to the rescue efforts.

The United Nations World Food Program said they are preparing a “large, massive operation” for the region.

A spokesman for World Vision released a somber statement to the press.  Matt Darvas said that some villages that were on mountainsides could be completely buried by rock falls.  Some of the villages that are wiped out had up to 1,000 residents.

6.7 Magnitude Aftershock Rattles Nepal; Over 2,500 Dead

In an eerie confirmation of reports from the National Earthquake Information Center that there was a 1 in 3 chance of a massive aftershock in Nepal following a 7.9 magnitude earthquake Saturday, the region was struck by a 6.7 magnitude aftershock Sunday.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck only six miles deep strengthening the damaging impact of the quake.

“The aftershocks keep coming … so people don’t know what to expect,” said Sanjay Karki, Nepal country head for global aid agency Mercy Corps. “All the open spaces in Kathmandu are packed with people who are camping outdoors. When the aftershocks come you cannot imagine the fear. You can hear women and children crying.”

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Officials said that at least 2,500 people have been confirmed dead as of Sunday night but the death toll is likely to rise significantly over the next few days when more rescuers reach the region to examine collapsed structures and areas buried in landslides.

Officials say that over 700 deaths have been confirmed in the capital of Kathmandu alone.

Residents of the city say that the majority of collapsed buildings were older structures made of brick.  Modern buildings toward the business area of the city did not collapse leading officials to confirm the death toll was lower than it could have been at this point because those buildings stayed up.

International relief group World Vision said that many villages outside the capital are on mountains and they were not prepared for this massive quake and aftershock.

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Villages near the epicenter “are literally perched on the sides of large mountain faces and are made from simple stone and rock construction. Many of these villages are only accessible by 4WD and then foot, with some villages hours and even entire days’ walks away from main roads at the best of times,” the group’s local staff member, Matt Darvas, said in a statement to the Associated Press.

Residents of the area who had returned to their homes are now back in the streets following the massive aftershock.  Makeshift tent cities have been created in open spaces such as school playgrounds, courtyards and even the traffic islands in streets shut down because of damage.

Hospitals have been overwhelmed with injuries.

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“Both private and government hospitals have run out of space and are treating patients outside, in the open,” Nepal’s envoy to India, Deep Kumar Upadhyay, told the AP.

Pakistan confirmed they are sending a 30-bed temporary hospital to the capital along with doctors and surgeons.   They are also sending at least 2,000 ready to eat meals and drinking water.

Disaster experts Sunday admitted they had been in Kathmandu last week investigating ways to better prepare the region for a massive earthquake similar to the 1934 quake that leveled the city. 

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“It was sort of a nightmare waiting to happen,” said seismologist James Jackson, head of the earth sciences department at the University of Cambridge in England. “Physically and geologically what happened is exactly what we thought would happen.”

“I was walking through that very area where that earthquake was and I thought at the very time that the area was heading for trouble,” said Jackson, lead scientist for Earthquakes Without Frontiers, a group that tries to make Asia more able to bounce back from these disasters and was having the meeting.

Over 1,300 Dead in Massive Nepal Earthquake

The strongest earthquake to hit the Himalayan nation of Nepal in over 80 years has left massive devastation and over 1,300 people dead.

The quake, which struck just outside the nation’s capital of Kathmandu, was measured at 7.8 on the Richter scale by the U.S. Geological Survey.

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The death toll in Nepal is rising every hour.  Neighboring countries India and China have reported deaths from the massive quake.

The quake struck just before lunch time local time in a very heavily populated area of the region.  Residents began to run into the streets in panic as many buildings began to crumble.  Trees fell knocking out power lines and massive cracks appeared in the middle of roads and walking paths.

Residents spent the rest of the day in the streets because of aftershocks that continued to collapse buildings damaged by the initial quake.

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“It is hard to describe. The house was shaking like crazy. We ran out and it seemed like the road was heaving up and down,” Vaidya, who runs an advertising agency, told The Associated Press. “I don’t remember anything like this before. Even my parents can’t remember anything this bad.”

“It’s cold and windy so we are all sitting in the car listening to the news on FM radio,” he said. “The experts are saying it’s still not safe to go back inside. No one can predict how big the next aftershock will be.”

The region lost many historical buildings and artifacts in the quake.

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The historic Dharahara tower was almost completely destroyed in the quake.  The formerly nine story tower, listed as a world historical site by the United Nations, is now reduced to a partially collapsed building less than two stories tall.  There were people on the 8th floor viewing tower when the quake struck and officials cannot say how many were killed in the building’s collapse.

The tower had been built by the nation’s first prime minister in 1832.

Durbar Square in Kathmandu’s Old City, also a U.N. recognized historical site, has been flattened.

The quake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest that killed at least 13.

New Report Says 143 Million Americans In Earthquake Zones

A new report says that around 143 million Americans are living in an earthquake zone and that 28 million in the lower 48 are in danger of “strong shaking”by a quake.

The researchers attribute the record total to population migration with many moving to the earthquake areas on the West Coast that are known for their activity.  The scientists also say a “change in hazard assessment”contributed to the expansion of zones.

The report shows nearly 20,000 schools are in the area that is considered a threat from earthquakes.

The last time FEMA estimated the number of Americans who could be impacted by a quake in 1994.  That report stated only 75 million Americans were at risk.  The study was conducted then by the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Geological Survey and FEMA.

The new report says that financial losses from damages to schools, hospitals and other emergency responder buildings could run over $4.5 billion per year.  Up to 80% of that cost would be located along the West Coast.

“While the West Coast may carry the larger burden of potential losses and the greatest threat from the strongest shaking, this report shows that the threat from earthquakes is widespread,”said Kishor Jaiswal, the researcher who presented the findings.