My emails during and after the Gorkha earthquake of 2015
Day 1: Saturday 25/04/2015
The earthquake started at 11:56 am on the day of rest (Saturday), therefore there were not any vehicles traveling and shops closed and few people out in Bharatpur. My research assistant and I were walking on, new road, where the Indian trucks get serviced, where buses are made etc. It is a wide road near the river. I heard thunder? And the metal was shaking on the commercial building off the road. I looked to the other side and the same was happening with that building. People were looking at the sky. I asked P what he thought was going on. He said earthquake.
I felt faint and not stable on the ground, there was a yellow haze and it appeared as if waves coming from the ground and the ground was shaking horizontally. It last around a minute and a half. I swayed but did not fall.
People were and continue to be calm and smile 9 hours later. Everyone was outdoors for hours, I even conducted a focus group discussion with a women group outside of a school. After the earthquake, we just continued to our meeting! I think we were in shock. We met a home owner who we interviewed last trip and he wanted to know if we thought his house was safe. I felt only one tremor until 14:30 but People said there had been up to five.
There is no visible damage in Bharatpur. The roads intact, most buildings do not appear to have cracks, although one young man who we interviewed earlier this week said his rented flat had a cracked wall. There was one water pipe that was cracked/broken on the main highway. We were 60 km from the epicenter but thankfully we had minimal deaths. Lalitpur, where I did my fieldwork in Nov/Dec 2013 was heavily damaged in Kathmandu valley from what I can see on TV. We were there only 10 days earlier.
People were listening to FM radio and we watched Indian TV in a shop to see the devastation in Kathmandu. Nepali TV was not functioning 3 hours after earthquake. Everyone was trying to use their mobiles so for the first hour the telecommunications network was not functioning. I could call my husband after 2 and a half hours. FM radio told people to stay outdoors for ten hours. Nepali TV started to work after 16:00.
We visited a social activist and his community to see if they were secure. We had tea and discussed earthquake, preparedness and response. They asked if I planned on changing my research to post disaster. There was much laughter for the earthquake lady, …
I asked various people in ward 4 what they were doing when they felt the earthquake and people seemed to be well prepared (with the exception of the slum dwellers who had no clue how to respond). R explained to them what to do if there were after shocks. Duck, open space, calmly go outside.
We made our way back to the hotel around 17:00. While I was preparing a bag for the night (I did not want to be alone in my 1st floor room) a strong aftershock startled me and I jolted outside. The continuing aftershocks are jarring and regular enough to keep my stomach in a knot. (I have this image from a movie of the earth opening up and … ) The images on local and national TV are heart breaking. I have stopped watching. I am too involved. I handed out orange whistles that I had purchased as a gift for the municipality to the hotel staff, fellow Americans staying at the hotel and my RA and his 2 friends.
It is 1:00 am and I am going to nap soon.
I have been very surprised that the telecommunications functioned and Internet! It was a relief to make contact with my family and also to read the emails from Durham and K especially. Everyone responded in such an quick, timely, efficient, professional manner. How wonderful when the system works.
I hope this new day brings nothing interesting to report…
Day 2: Sunday 26/04/2015
It is 10:00 am, I slept on a couch in the restaurant. There were tremors at 3:00 and 5:00 this morning I went outdoors but they did not last very long. I am going to move to a bungalow that is more expensive but more secure.
A private TV station has caused panic in Kathmandu by saying another earthquake of the same magnitude of yesterday is expected at noon today. Whole Villages have disappeared in the epicenter, people believe the total could be upward of 10,000. Relief efforts have started.
Bharatpur is calm, quiet. I hear from people with family in Kathmandu that the shocks are frequent and strong and people are getting into a panic. I am staying around hotel for today.
Night 2
It is 7:45 pm, dark and night two. I hope there is not much activity tonight. Last night was terrifying. I hope to sleep a bit tonight. I have moved to a safer room in the hotel. I stayed at the hotel most of the day and took a car ride late afternoon to see the city overall. There is no / minimal damage in Bharatpur, the shops are closed, people milling in the streets, camping outside. People are calm. We only saw 10 trucks buses on the main North-South highway at the intersection with the East-West highway. Read, no movement on the main highway.
Kathmandu seems to be a different reality. There are rumors spreading that the valley needs to be evacuated in preparation for a 9 mg earthquake. The private TV stations are spreading panic and announcing what time the next big one is expected. Honestly, they should be put in jail. I am so pleased I am not there. One of the people I am with has a wife and young child in Kathmandu. The main road from the West into the valley has been closed at times today due to rocks falling.
I had hoped that departing from Nepal via India was an option but it does not seem to be very realistic due to visas. I have no desire to leave this safe environment, just wanted to have a contingency plan. R and K have been great. I thought I should go interview today but I could not. We sort of just sat all day. There are after shocks from time to time and the constant wondering what if is tiring.
I forced myself to write a bit today. The rumors, the media hype and the images on TV (which I stayed away from today) just make everyone more fearful. I almost wonder if there is too much information available. Now I know that when I think the Earth is moving, it really is. We sort of fell like our heads are spinning, or fainting, the palms sweat. It is very odd. Some after shocks are subtle, the water moves in the bottle, but one today was massive and lasted 30 seconds. Sounds like the earth is angry. I can now understand the folk tales. Also the bloody crows seem to be the only ones vocalizing their emotions.
If I had to sum up resilience to earthquake (or not) in a few words, it would be government action, media, the power of prayer, internet, mobile phones, preparedness, helplessness in the face of disaster, fear and willingness of people to support each other. You can see people’s willingness to support each other.
Day 3: Monday 27/04/2015
We had great night. There was only very low grade shaking around 22:00 and at 3:45 the wife of R friend called and said the ground had been shaking for a longtime time very low grade in Kathmandu. Birds are chirping this morning so a comforting sound. I think they have been quiet since the earthquake. We are at hour 44 so things should be calming down. The first 48 hours are the most problematic, and the first 72.
Day 4: Tuesday 28/04/2015
Hour 68. No after shocks last night.
I am coming home. Yesterday, Monday, the Indian government relaxed entry procedures on the border crossings over land. This will allow me to travel home given the fact that Kathmandu is increasingly unlikely to be a way to exit Nepal. I am in the process of renting a car and will travel to Raxual, the border crossing tomorrow Wednesday. I will travel to Patna (where I conducted a scoping trip last) and on Friday evening I will fly from Patna to Delhi and onward home. It will be interesting to see how onerous the border crossing is, if the temporary procedures work and then driving to Patna and arriving in the dark.
Durham has been amazingly helpful during this process (K, A, N and those in the background)) and K has been a wonderful link. In the last 40 hours, I have communicated with R and K almost every few hours. Both have supported me beyond words. Thank you for the emails people have sent. I appreciated them.
Sunday, R and K tried to find out if it was possible for me to leave Nepal via India. By 19:00 it was clear it was not possible to get visas at the border crossing. This has just been a whirlwind that I have been tracking by the hour. Not day but hour. Hour 1, night-time Saturday, long night, hour 24 came, continuous shaking, evening, 2nd night we were all scared. The guys were getting tired and anxious so we rallied around and played with my Uno cards. M’s wife called at 3:00 saying that the shaking was going on for a long time in Kathmandu. Morning came with the birds singing and we had not been forced to flee our room.
I visited the municipality yesterday to see what they were focusing on. It was very quiet, I spent 45 minutes with the Mayor. He was in good spirits because his city was spared the devastation of the catastrophic earthquake. They spent Sunday in the municipality answering questions that citizens might have. They had told people that the first 72 hours are the most dangerous. People stayed outside and slept outside for the first two nights. The municipality handed out tarpaulins in the designated four open spaces in the city (Ward 2, the college, and two others).
Yesterday when the 48th hour came, I could feel my stomach unclench a bit and my heart started to ache. Now I can think of the people who have lost their lives, their homes, and their entire communities. What about the injured – surrounded by devastation. The children? I was shown what the villages that disappeared would have looked like. Getting access to these villages where the last kms are on terrain accessible by foot only is insane.
My counterpart talked about his earthquake experience with boulders crashing around him. S was traveling to Kathmandu for an important meeting about the national building code when boulders crashed onto the main East-West highway of the country (read mountainous road) and destroyed a 4×4. His car was behind this 4×4 and rocks were falling behind him. He did not understand what was happening. Two employees from the hotel were in Kathmandu on Saturday and both changed plans at the last minute and avoided death amongst the 400 or so at the tower. They are beyond stunned.
S and I went to a hotel for a tea. There was a woman in tears from Finland, she could not function and think how to get home. Two young college graduates were mulling over how to get home to their respective countries. One had no money and no passport. They were not much older than my son.
When the Iranian geologists at the conference a few weeks earlier in Kathmandu mentioned trauma after earthquakes it took me by surprise. Now I know what they are referring to in a small way. I will never think of thunder and metal clanking in the same way. A loud sound forces adrenalin through my system. Water bottles and my black backpack with my passport, medicines, money. My whistle and head torch and my two phones.
It is fascinating to witness the various stages that come after the hazard. Saturday was shock and everyone continued with their organized activities (I conducted a focus group and went to scheduled interview), the second day (24 hours later) people were numb and nervous and were processing what had happened to them the day before and continued to happen with the too regular after shocks. Monday, 48 hours later, people are emotional / tearful and needed to talk about where they were when it happened or “attacked”.
Some are ready to get back to their everyday lives. The waiters were watching wrestling last night rather than the nonstop news of the devastation. A businessman from the far west contacted M and asked where his axil for the 4-wheel drive was. M explained that due to the earthquake, nothing was coming out of Kathmandu. The business man was not impressed.
I guess you need to be in it to understand how disruptive an earthquake can be. I wonder how long the memory of the earthquake will linger in the minds and hearts of people and especially the government. What will the lessons be? Will we learn them? What will the comparison be to Haiti. I hope the international aid community will not repeat the mistakes of Haiti.
Here in Bharatpur, the streets have been quiet with minimal transport, a precious few buses and no trucks on the road. The shops are closed, children at home for at least 5 days. The hospital two blocks away the Chitwan medical center has received many injured from Gorhka (hilly, mountainous area where the earthquake was very powerful, close to the epicenter). My hotel, the Global, will be a hub for humanitarian relief for Gorhka because we are so close to the epicentre, airport across the street and it is only 62 km from Bharatpur. The international doctors and supplies start arriving today.
People say the government is focused on Kathmandu and not on the epicenter. Today I heard (speculation) that the death toll may ultimate rise to 15,000 – 20,000. Talk is of the ‘missing’. I had thought 10 was high, this would be more than the 1934 earthquake.
The western road to Kathmandu is clogged with traffic in both directions. The road is a bit dodgy was well. Two people tried unsuccessfully yesterday to leave Bharatpur to get their families out of Kathmandu and both returned to Bharatpur. They tried in the morning and again in the afternoon. The highway is jammed.
Anyway, no aftershocks yesterday and last night was calm. I need to find the car today and say goodbye to the people I have spent the last 72 hours with and those who I will leave behind. I can escape; they can not. It is very hard.
Day 5 Wednesday 29/04/2015 and Day 6 Thursday 30/04/2015. My last email about my experience.
I arrived in Patna, India after an uneventful but long 12-hour journey yesterday (Wednesday). Three hours to the border, two hours at the border (the Indian officials were taking their time) and then almost seven hours from R to Patna in Bihar State (two and half hours on unpaved pot hole ridden roads). We arrived in the dark, after traffic jams, witnessing three car accidents, two-road accidents induced brawls, and one injured person who had been hit by a vehicle and his bicycle was broken. It sounds like fiction.
I was so fortunate that R, my RA, crossed the border with me and helped me with the procedures and helped me find my taxi. I would have struggled on my own. I expected to find an everyday chaotic scene at the border and it did not disappoint. R, the border crossing, is closed for foreigners; Nepali and Indian people cross freely and easily. This porous border allows for friendly relationships between the two nations, including marrying. (The Terai inhabitants have generally had more affinity with India than with Kathmandu, this has been a lingering source of worry for the national government of Nepal).
Since the Indian government (48 hours after Earthquake) relaxed border restrictions; on Monday evening, Durham and I agreed I would evacuate from Nepal on Wednesday. I needed to arrange a car and driver and I wanted to understand the situation at the border. The trip was very smooth and I am so grateful for all the support and organization of logistics involved in getting me to Patna. R, organized the trip for me, UNICEF gave me information about the border crossing and BSDMA kept in contact with me during the journey and I felt I was in safe hands. I begin my final homeward bound journey on Friday night. Flights from Patna– Delhi-Dubai- Newcastle. (there were no flights available on Thursday).
On Wednesday, I left the Global Hotel before eight am after meeting with S from the municipality for an hour. It was so sad listening to him speak of the lack of relief efforts to the epicenter due to the terrain and landslides. He has(d) extended family there. From Bharatpur, a group of youths who are familiar with the mountainous terrain and who are obviously physically able to handle the climbing will go and investigate the reality of the villages, come back to report and relief will start. The question is how? The terrain is impassable, it has been days already, and in six weeks monsoon season will start with the increased possibly of landslides? It is so difficult to comprehend. I feel the criticisms of the government’s response to the epicenter difficult to accept. ‘Something’ must be done, but the topography limits intervention at the moment. The critical question is will the central government focus on rebuilding the capital and its 2-3 million people to the complete detriment of the rest of the country that house 26 million of its inhabitants. Cities in Terai already worry.
On Day 5 (Wednesday), hundreds of buses were beginning to transport people out of Kathmandu Valley. (There was a shortage of buses on Monday and Tuesday partly because the ethnic group that drives public buses in KV had left the valley to try to rescue their extended family in the epicenter). This effort to move people out of the valley is sensible to decrease the pressure on the valley’s diminishing resources. The National Society for Earthquake Technology has issued an international request for engineers who could come and assist in assessing the structural damage to the thousands of buildings in the devastated Kathmandu Valley. People are scared of their own homes at the moment. Any volunteers?? If so, write to me and I will get you in contact with our wonderful NSET colleagues.
The terrible rains yesterday morning had everyone whispering the words, “landslides, landslides”. The fear is land slides on the East West Highway leaving KV from the west. There were two colleagues who were waiting for their children to be on some of those buses yesterday headed out of the valley. The fear just continues. The trauma, the lack of sleep, inability to eat, the spinning head. I know we were all functioning at diminished capacity.
I wonder how the national government, the UN, the relief coordinators, colleagues at the National Society for Earthquake Technology are coping. I hope and pray Nepal and the response to the earthquake in Nepal will be compared positively to the response in Haiti (5th anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake was in January this year). (Death toll was 250,000, the failure of the international aid community to properly respond in a coordinated fashion was stunning, and the knock on effects of the disaster are still with Haiti).
Nationally, everyone is trying to do what he or she can. Throughout the country, people are collecting shelter items and clothes and will be sending them to the epicenter (Bharatpur as a staging ground since it is so close to the epicenter). For example, the Lions Club nationally has asked all branches to collect money, no matter how small, and send it to the headquarters. Some want to contribute to the honest Prime Minister’s relief fund, others are still asking what is the most “authentic” way of contributing. The hotels in Bharatpur are sorting out food, blankets and water to be sent.
After my arrival in Patna at 19:30, I tidied myself up and went to dinner at the home of the executive director of the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (responsible for the safety of over 100 million people!). We had just seen each other at the ESRC / NERC funded Earthquake without Frontiers nine country conference of natural and social scientists in Kathmandu. Unbelievable timing.
Anil described the damage of the Earthquake in Bihar, India, 80 deaths and the damage to the structural integrity of an unknown number of buildings (I imagine it will be less than in Kathmandu Valley though). The BSDMA has already been training engineers and architects on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess damage in the hardest hit northern districts. The procedures to decide how to address the most structurally damaged needs to be worked out. In Bihar, there was mass panic according to BSDMA. I do not think this was the case across the board in Nepal. In KV, there was panic but it calmed down relatively quickly. In Bharatpur, people were calm and collected on Saturday and continued in that manner in the days afterwards even through the horrible after shocks. In Bihar, the government asked people to return to their homes by the second night to avoid issues with looting, in Nepal people were advised to stay outside for the first two nights (the focus on the first 72 hours).
The Bihar government has offered free food and shelter to anyone from Nepal who would like to come to Bihar. At 23:00, I was taken to the Red Cross office in Patna and I saw the loading of several relief trucks with family packs (a complete set of items that could be used by 3 generations of a family), blankets and of course water. This relief effort for Nepal from Bihar started two days ago and will now pick up speed. The Bihar government is very keen to support Nepal and will provide whatever support is needed. Anil asked me to share my experience with the BSDMA staff and the international aid community this afternoon at a scheduled meeting they were organizing. I am not certain how coherent I will be.
In the last days, I have repeatedly been told that I am lucky or that I brought luck to Bharatpur (which escaped damage) since I am ‘studying earthquakes’ and now I have experienced one during my PhD. In the back of my mind, I wonder what would have been people’s response to me if Bharatpur had been damaged. It may not have been so positive. I wonder if they would have thought I had induced it. [During my masters by research fieldwork in Lalitpur and Kirtipur in the KV, people did not want to speak of earthquakes for fear it would come to fruition]. I was a bit hesitant on Saturday, walking through Ward 4 (before we knew there was no damage); where people knew I had been asking questions about everyday risks and hazards especially earthquake awareness and preparation. I was already known by some as the earthquake lady.
I do not know why I participated in the ‘great earthquake’ (as the media is calling in in Nepal). Originally, I had envisioned conducting a comparison between KV and Patna. This changed after the progression panel that I had last year (they thought I was being too ambitious with two very different fieldwork sites in short fieldwork trips). I had a scheduled fieldwork trip to Bharatpur for March / April but my husband had to travel to Central Asia in March so my fieldwork trip was delayed to April / May. Bharatpur should have been damaged by the earthquake, it is closer than Kathmandu to the epicenter. I did not collect the data I had hoped for during this trip and now I am going home early. My PhD will need to be changed. It is all a bit much. The question is what will I do with my research now…. (and I have no clue). I need to meet with my supervisors next week.
First, I need to get back home and see my family and friends. My husband has told me our children are more concerned about which episode of Top Gear to watch; that in itself is comforting. One less thing to worry about.
My emails were subsequently published as blogs at Durham University, Department of Geography PhD students blog site
http://community.dur.ac.uk/geopad/2015/04/
The earthquake started at 11:56 am on the day of rest (Saturday), therefore there were not any vehicles traveling and shops closed and few people out in Bharatpur. My research assistant and I were walking on, new road, where the Indian trucks get serviced, where buses are made etc. It is a wide road near the river. I heard thunder? And the metal was shaking on the commercial building off the road. I looked to the other side and the same was happening with that building. People were looking at the sky. I asked P what he thought was going on. He said earthquake.
I felt faint and not stable on the ground, there was a yellow haze and it appeared as if waves coming from the ground and the ground was shaking horizontally. It last around a minute and a half. I swayed but did not fall.
People were and continue to be calm and smile 9 hours later. Everyone was outdoors for hours, I even conducted a focus group discussion with a women group outside of a school. After the earthquake, we just continued to our meeting! I think we were in shock. We met a home owner who we interviewed last trip and he wanted to know if we thought his house was safe. I felt only one tremor until 14:30 but People said there had been up to five.
There is no visible damage in Bharatpur. The roads intact, most buildings do not appear to have cracks, although one young man who we interviewed earlier this week said his rented flat had a cracked wall. There was one water pipe that was cracked/broken on the main highway. We were 60 km from the epicenter but thankfully we had minimal deaths. Lalitpur, where I did my fieldwork in Nov/Dec 2013 was heavily damaged in Kathmandu valley from what I can see on TV. We were there only 10 days earlier.
People were listening to FM radio and we watched Indian TV in a shop to see the devastation in Kathmandu. Nepali TV was not functioning 3 hours after earthquake. Everyone was trying to use their mobiles so for the first hour the telecommunications network was not functioning. I could call my husband after 2 and a half hours. FM radio told people to stay outdoors for ten hours. Nepali TV started to work after 16:00.
We visited a social activist and his community to see if they were secure. We had tea and discussed earthquake, preparedness and response. They asked if I planned on changing my research to post disaster. There was much laughter for the earthquake lady, …
I asked various people in ward 4 what they were doing when they felt the earthquake and people seemed to be well prepared (with the exception of the slum dwellers who had no clue how to respond). R explained to them what to do if there were after shocks. Duck, open space, calmly go outside.
We made our way back to the hotel around 17:00. While I was preparing a bag for the night (I did not want to be alone in my 1st floor room) a strong aftershock startled me and I jolted outside. The continuing aftershocks are jarring and regular enough to keep my stomach in a knot. (I have this image from a movie of the earth opening up and … ) The images on local and national TV are heart breaking. I have stopped watching. I am too involved. I handed out orange whistles that I had purchased as a gift for the municipality to the hotel staff, fellow Americans staying at the hotel and my RA and his 2 friends.
It is 1:00 am and I am going to nap soon.
I have been very surprised that the telecommunications functioned and Internet! It was a relief to make contact with my family and also to read the emails from Durham and K especially. Everyone responded in such an quick, timely, efficient, professional manner. How wonderful when the system works.
I hope this new day brings nothing interesting to report…
Day 2: Sunday 26/04/2015
It is 10:00 am, I slept on a couch in the restaurant. There were tremors at 3:00 and 5:00 this morning I went outdoors but they did not last very long. I am going to move to a bungalow that is more expensive but more secure.
A private TV station has caused panic in Kathmandu by saying another earthquake of the same magnitude of yesterday is expected at noon today. Whole Villages have disappeared in the epicenter, people believe the total could be upward of 10,000. Relief efforts have started.
Bharatpur is calm, quiet. I hear from people with family in Kathmandu that the shocks are frequent and strong and people are getting into a panic. I am staying around hotel for today.
Night 2
It is 7:45 pm, dark and night two. I hope there is not much activity tonight. Last night was terrifying. I hope to sleep a bit tonight. I have moved to a safer room in the hotel. I stayed at the hotel most of the day and took a car ride late afternoon to see the city overall. There is no / minimal damage in Bharatpur, the shops are closed, people milling in the streets, camping outside. People are calm. We only saw 10 trucks buses on the main North-South highway at the intersection with the East-West highway. Read, no movement on the main highway.
Kathmandu seems to be a different reality. There are rumors spreading that the valley needs to be evacuated in preparation for a 9 mg earthquake. The private TV stations are spreading panic and announcing what time the next big one is expected. Honestly, they should be put in jail. I am so pleased I am not there. One of the people I am with has a wife and young child in Kathmandu. The main road from the West into the valley has been closed at times today due to rocks falling.
I had hoped that departing from Nepal via India was an option but it does not seem to be very realistic due to visas. I have no desire to leave this safe environment, just wanted to have a contingency plan. R and K have been great. I thought I should go interview today but I could not. We sort of just sat all day. There are after shocks from time to time and the constant wondering what if is tiring.
I forced myself to write a bit today. The rumors, the media hype and the images on TV (which I stayed away from today) just make everyone more fearful. I almost wonder if there is too much information available. Now I know that when I think the Earth is moving, it really is. We sort of fell like our heads are spinning, or fainting, the palms sweat. It is very odd. Some after shocks are subtle, the water moves in the bottle, but one today was massive and lasted 30 seconds. Sounds like the earth is angry. I can now understand the folk tales. Also the bloody crows seem to be the only ones vocalizing their emotions.
If I had to sum up resilience to earthquake (or not) in a few words, it would be government action, media, the power of prayer, internet, mobile phones, preparedness, helplessness in the face of disaster, fear and willingness of people to support each other. You can see people’s willingness to support each other.
Day 3: Monday 27/04/2015
We had great night. There was only very low grade shaking around 22:00 and at 3:45 the wife of R friend called and said the ground had been shaking for a longtime time very low grade in Kathmandu. Birds are chirping this morning so a comforting sound. I think they have been quiet since the earthquake. We are at hour 44 so things should be calming down. The first 48 hours are the most problematic, and the first 72.
Day 4: Tuesday 28/04/2015
Hour 68. No after shocks last night.
I am coming home. Yesterday, Monday, the Indian government relaxed entry procedures on the border crossings over land. This will allow me to travel home given the fact that Kathmandu is increasingly unlikely to be a way to exit Nepal. I am in the process of renting a car and will travel to Raxual, the border crossing tomorrow Wednesday. I will travel to Patna (where I conducted a scoping trip last) and on Friday evening I will fly from Patna to Delhi and onward home. It will be interesting to see how onerous the border crossing is, if the temporary procedures work and then driving to Patna and arriving in the dark.
Durham has been amazingly helpful during this process (K, A, N and those in the background)) and K has been a wonderful link. In the last 40 hours, I have communicated with R and K almost every few hours. Both have supported me beyond words. Thank you for the emails people have sent. I appreciated them.
Sunday, R and K tried to find out if it was possible for me to leave Nepal via India. By 19:00 it was clear it was not possible to get visas at the border crossing. This has just been a whirlwind that I have been tracking by the hour. Not day but hour. Hour 1, night-time Saturday, long night, hour 24 came, continuous shaking, evening, 2nd night we were all scared. The guys were getting tired and anxious so we rallied around and played with my Uno cards. M’s wife called at 3:00 saying that the shaking was going on for a long time in Kathmandu. Morning came with the birds singing and we had not been forced to flee our room.
I visited the municipality yesterday to see what they were focusing on. It was very quiet, I spent 45 minutes with the Mayor. He was in good spirits because his city was spared the devastation of the catastrophic earthquake. They spent Sunday in the municipality answering questions that citizens might have. They had told people that the first 72 hours are the most dangerous. People stayed outside and slept outside for the first two nights. The municipality handed out tarpaulins in the designated four open spaces in the city (Ward 2, the college, and two others).
Yesterday when the 48th hour came, I could feel my stomach unclench a bit and my heart started to ache. Now I can think of the people who have lost their lives, their homes, and their entire communities. What about the injured – surrounded by devastation. The children? I was shown what the villages that disappeared would have looked like. Getting access to these villages where the last kms are on terrain accessible by foot only is insane.
My counterpart talked about his earthquake experience with boulders crashing around him. S was traveling to Kathmandu for an important meeting about the national building code when boulders crashed onto the main East-West highway of the country (read mountainous road) and destroyed a 4×4. His car was behind this 4×4 and rocks were falling behind him. He did not understand what was happening. Two employees from the hotel were in Kathmandu on Saturday and both changed plans at the last minute and avoided death amongst the 400 or so at the tower. They are beyond stunned.
S and I went to a hotel for a tea. There was a woman in tears from Finland, she could not function and think how to get home. Two young college graduates were mulling over how to get home to their respective countries. One had no money and no passport. They were not much older than my son.
When the Iranian geologists at the conference a few weeks earlier in Kathmandu mentioned trauma after earthquakes it took me by surprise. Now I know what they are referring to in a small way. I will never think of thunder and metal clanking in the same way. A loud sound forces adrenalin through my system. Water bottles and my black backpack with my passport, medicines, money. My whistle and head torch and my two phones.
It is fascinating to witness the various stages that come after the hazard. Saturday was shock and everyone continued with their organized activities (I conducted a focus group and went to scheduled interview), the second day (24 hours later) people were numb and nervous and were processing what had happened to them the day before and continued to happen with the too regular after shocks. Monday, 48 hours later, people are emotional / tearful and needed to talk about where they were when it happened or “attacked”.
Some are ready to get back to their everyday lives. The waiters were watching wrestling last night rather than the nonstop news of the devastation. A businessman from the far west contacted M and asked where his axil for the 4-wheel drive was. M explained that due to the earthquake, nothing was coming out of Kathmandu. The business man was not impressed.
I guess you need to be in it to understand how disruptive an earthquake can be. I wonder how long the memory of the earthquake will linger in the minds and hearts of people and especially the government. What will the lessons be? Will we learn them? What will the comparison be to Haiti. I hope the international aid community will not repeat the mistakes of Haiti.
Here in Bharatpur, the streets have been quiet with minimal transport, a precious few buses and no trucks on the road. The shops are closed, children at home for at least 5 days. The hospital two blocks away the Chitwan medical center has received many injured from Gorhka (hilly, mountainous area where the earthquake was very powerful, close to the epicenter). My hotel, the Global, will be a hub for humanitarian relief for Gorhka because we are so close to the epicentre, airport across the street and it is only 62 km from Bharatpur. The international doctors and supplies start arriving today.
People say the government is focused on Kathmandu and not on the epicenter. Today I heard (speculation) that the death toll may ultimate rise to 15,000 – 20,000. Talk is of the ‘missing’. I had thought 10 was high, this would be more than the 1934 earthquake.
The western road to Kathmandu is clogged with traffic in both directions. The road is a bit dodgy was well. Two people tried unsuccessfully yesterday to leave Bharatpur to get their families out of Kathmandu and both returned to Bharatpur. They tried in the morning and again in the afternoon. The highway is jammed.
Anyway, no aftershocks yesterday and last night was calm. I need to find the car today and say goodbye to the people I have spent the last 72 hours with and those who I will leave behind. I can escape; they can not. It is very hard.
Day 5 Wednesday 29/04/2015 and Day 6 Thursday 30/04/2015. My last email about my experience.
I arrived in Patna, India after an uneventful but long 12-hour journey yesterday (Wednesday). Three hours to the border, two hours at the border (the Indian officials were taking their time) and then almost seven hours from R to Patna in Bihar State (two and half hours on unpaved pot hole ridden roads). We arrived in the dark, after traffic jams, witnessing three car accidents, two-road accidents induced brawls, and one injured person who had been hit by a vehicle and his bicycle was broken. It sounds like fiction.
I was so fortunate that R, my RA, crossed the border with me and helped me with the procedures and helped me find my taxi. I would have struggled on my own. I expected to find an everyday chaotic scene at the border and it did not disappoint. R, the border crossing, is closed for foreigners; Nepali and Indian people cross freely and easily. This porous border allows for friendly relationships between the two nations, including marrying. (The Terai inhabitants have generally had more affinity with India than with Kathmandu, this has been a lingering source of worry for the national government of Nepal).
Since the Indian government (48 hours after Earthquake) relaxed border restrictions; on Monday evening, Durham and I agreed I would evacuate from Nepal on Wednesday. I needed to arrange a car and driver and I wanted to understand the situation at the border. The trip was very smooth and I am so grateful for all the support and organization of logistics involved in getting me to Patna. R, organized the trip for me, UNICEF gave me information about the border crossing and BSDMA kept in contact with me during the journey and I felt I was in safe hands. I begin my final homeward bound journey on Friday night. Flights from Patna– Delhi-Dubai- Newcastle. (there were no flights available on Thursday).
On Wednesday, I left the Global Hotel before eight am after meeting with S from the municipality for an hour. It was so sad listening to him speak of the lack of relief efforts to the epicenter due to the terrain and landslides. He has(d) extended family there. From Bharatpur, a group of youths who are familiar with the mountainous terrain and who are obviously physically able to handle the climbing will go and investigate the reality of the villages, come back to report and relief will start. The question is how? The terrain is impassable, it has been days already, and in six weeks monsoon season will start with the increased possibly of landslides? It is so difficult to comprehend. I feel the criticisms of the government’s response to the epicenter difficult to accept. ‘Something’ must be done, but the topography limits intervention at the moment. The critical question is will the central government focus on rebuilding the capital and its 2-3 million people to the complete detriment of the rest of the country that house 26 million of its inhabitants. Cities in Terai already worry.
On Day 5 (Wednesday), hundreds of buses were beginning to transport people out of Kathmandu Valley. (There was a shortage of buses on Monday and Tuesday partly because the ethnic group that drives public buses in KV had left the valley to try to rescue their extended family in the epicenter). This effort to move people out of the valley is sensible to decrease the pressure on the valley’s diminishing resources. The National Society for Earthquake Technology has issued an international request for engineers who could come and assist in assessing the structural damage to the thousands of buildings in the devastated Kathmandu Valley. People are scared of their own homes at the moment. Any volunteers?? If so, write to me and I will get you in contact with our wonderful NSET colleagues.
The terrible rains yesterday morning had everyone whispering the words, “landslides, landslides”. The fear is land slides on the East West Highway leaving KV from the west. There were two colleagues who were waiting for their children to be on some of those buses yesterday headed out of the valley. The fear just continues. The trauma, the lack of sleep, inability to eat, the spinning head. I know we were all functioning at diminished capacity.
I wonder how the national government, the UN, the relief coordinators, colleagues at the National Society for Earthquake Technology are coping. I hope and pray Nepal and the response to the earthquake in Nepal will be compared positively to the response in Haiti (5th anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake was in January this year). (Death toll was 250,000, the failure of the international aid community to properly respond in a coordinated fashion was stunning, and the knock on effects of the disaster are still with Haiti).
Nationally, everyone is trying to do what he or she can. Throughout the country, people are collecting shelter items and clothes and will be sending them to the epicenter (Bharatpur as a staging ground since it is so close to the epicenter). For example, the Lions Club nationally has asked all branches to collect money, no matter how small, and send it to the headquarters. Some want to contribute to the honest Prime Minister’s relief fund, others are still asking what is the most “authentic” way of contributing. The hotels in Bharatpur are sorting out food, blankets and water to be sent.
After my arrival in Patna at 19:30, I tidied myself up and went to dinner at the home of the executive director of the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (responsible for the safety of over 100 million people!). We had just seen each other at the ESRC / NERC funded Earthquake without Frontiers nine country conference of natural and social scientists in Kathmandu. Unbelievable timing.
Anil described the damage of the Earthquake in Bihar, India, 80 deaths and the damage to the structural integrity of an unknown number of buildings (I imagine it will be less than in Kathmandu Valley though). The BSDMA has already been training engineers and architects on Tuesday and Wednesday to assess damage in the hardest hit northern districts. The procedures to decide how to address the most structurally damaged needs to be worked out. In Bihar, there was mass panic according to BSDMA. I do not think this was the case across the board in Nepal. In KV, there was panic but it calmed down relatively quickly. In Bharatpur, people were calm and collected on Saturday and continued in that manner in the days afterwards even through the horrible after shocks. In Bihar, the government asked people to return to their homes by the second night to avoid issues with looting, in Nepal people were advised to stay outside for the first two nights (the focus on the first 72 hours).
The Bihar government has offered free food and shelter to anyone from Nepal who would like to come to Bihar. At 23:00, I was taken to the Red Cross office in Patna and I saw the loading of several relief trucks with family packs (a complete set of items that could be used by 3 generations of a family), blankets and of course water. This relief effort for Nepal from Bihar started two days ago and will now pick up speed. The Bihar government is very keen to support Nepal and will provide whatever support is needed. Anil asked me to share my experience with the BSDMA staff and the international aid community this afternoon at a scheduled meeting they were organizing. I am not certain how coherent I will be.
In the last days, I have repeatedly been told that I am lucky or that I brought luck to Bharatpur (which escaped damage) since I am ‘studying earthquakes’ and now I have experienced one during my PhD. In the back of my mind, I wonder what would have been people’s response to me if Bharatpur had been damaged. It may not have been so positive. I wonder if they would have thought I had induced it. [During my masters by research fieldwork in Lalitpur and Kirtipur in the KV, people did not want to speak of earthquakes for fear it would come to fruition]. I was a bit hesitant on Saturday, walking through Ward 4 (before we knew there was no damage); where people knew I had been asking questions about everyday risks and hazards especially earthquake awareness and preparation. I was already known by some as the earthquake lady.
I do not know why I participated in the ‘great earthquake’ (as the media is calling in in Nepal). Originally, I had envisioned conducting a comparison between KV and Patna. This changed after the progression panel that I had last year (they thought I was being too ambitious with two very different fieldwork sites in short fieldwork trips). I had a scheduled fieldwork trip to Bharatpur for March / April but my husband had to travel to Central Asia in March so my fieldwork trip was delayed to April / May. Bharatpur should have been damaged by the earthquake, it is closer than Kathmandu to the epicenter. I did not collect the data I had hoped for during this trip and now I am going home early. My PhD will need to be changed. It is all a bit much. The question is what will I do with my research now…. (and I have no clue). I need to meet with my supervisors next week.
First, I need to get back home and see my family and friends. My husband has told me our children are more concerned about which episode of Top Gear to watch; that in itself is comforting. One less thing to worry about.
My emails were subsequently published as blogs at Durham University, Department of Geography PhD students blog site
http://community.dur.ac.uk/geopad/2015/04/