Published: April 27,2015
An avalanche triggered by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal plowed through Mount Everest's base camp Saturday killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more.
The base camp's nylon tents stood little chance against the torrent of snow and debris that rushed down the mountainside, smothering everything in its path. The avalanche — or perhaps a series of avalanches hidden in a massive white cloud — plowed into a part of base camp, a sprawling seasonal village of climbers, guides and porters, flattening at least 30 tents, Tshering said. All of the dead and injured were at base camp.
The
worst injured were ferried out in helicopters, while those remaining at
base camp endured a series of powerful aftershocks, some of which
caused smaller but still terrifying avalanches in the surrounding
mountains.
But as the first
stunned survivors of the avalanche reached Kathmandu, Nepal's capital,
they said that dozens of people may still be missing and were almost
certainly dead.
(MORE: Earthquake Devastation In Nepal)
"The snow swept
away many tents and people," said Gyelu Sherpa, a sunburned guide among
the first group of 15 injured survivors to reach Kathmandu.
The
15, most of them Sherpa guides or support staff working on Everest,
flew from Lukla, a small airstrip not far from Everest. None were
believed to be facing life-threatening injuries, but many limped to a
bus taking them to a nearby hospital, or were partially wrapped in
bandages.
Bhim Bahadur Khatri, 35, a cook and a Sherpa, was preparing food in a meal tent when the avalanche struck.
"We
all rushed out to the open and the next moment a huge wall of snow just
piled on me," he said in a brief airport interview before being driven
to a hospital. "I managed to dig out of what could easily have been my
grave. I wiggled and used my hands as claws to dig as much as I could. I
was suffocating, I could not breathe. But I knew I had to survive."
When he finally dug his way out, gulping in fresh air, he was surrounded by devastation. Part of the base camp village was gone.
"I
looked around and saw the tents all torn and crushed. Many people were
injured," he said. "I had lived but lost many of my friends."
Returning sherpas, "it's bad", won't say anything else, kept walking down.
The magnitude-7.8
quake struck at around noon Saturday — just over a year after the
deadliest avalanche on record hit Everest, killing 16 Sherpa guides on
April 18, 2014.
Witnesses said
the avalanche began on Mount Pumori, a 7,000-meter (22,966-foot) -high
mountain just a few kilometers (miles) from Everest, gathering strength
as it headed toward base camp and the lower reaches of Everest's
climbing routes. Numerous climbers remained stranded Sunday on routes
above base camp, but teams in contact by satellite telephones said no
one was believed to be in danger or running short of supplies.
Azim
Afif, the 27-year-old leader of a climbing team from University of
Technology Malaysia, estimated that about 80 percent of the people at
base camp had left by midafternoon Sunday.
He
said that the critically injured had already been evacuated, and that
temporary clinics had been set up for people with lesser injuries.
Everest attracts a range of climbers, from barely skilled hobbyists to
some of the world's most experienced mountaineers, many of whom have
extensive emergency training and come prepared with medical supplies.
Those mountaineers, many on Everest to work as professional guides,
almost certainly were able to treat many of the injured.
In
an interview on the message service WhatsApp, Afif said that the dead
were being respectfully wrapped, but that the "priority is for those
injured."
Everest avalanche kills at least eight climbers following Nepal earthquake http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/25/nepal-earthquake-everest-avalanche-kills-at-least-eight-climbers-5166947/ …
Earlier
in the day, Ang Tshering of the Nepal Mountaineering Association said
22 of the most seriously injured had already been taken by helicopter
for treatment in the village of Pheriche, where the nearest medical
facility is located. It wasn't clear whether that number had risen by
late Sunday.
Nepal was also hit
Sunday by a series of aftershocks, triggering more avalanches in the
mountains above base camp. None of those avalanches, though, were
believed to have caused further injuries.
But each aftershock, Afif said, sent people in camp running from their tents to seek shelter behind large rocks.
MORE: Earthquake Devastation
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