Second Round Of Quake

Siddhi B Ranjitkar

May 12, 2015: Again at the mid day, one of the major quakes has hit the central Nepal panicking the innocent people that have thought the aftershocks have been fading away but it is not so the major quakes have been back again to tear down the already weakened buildings by the first quake.

The parliamentary session was going on at the conventional hall when the second round quake hit Nepal. It shook the conventional hall at Nayabanesvor in Kathmandu. The man at the dais speaking to the lawmakers was shaking. Lawmakers ran for their lives leaving their seats. The Speaker adjourned the meeting, the Nepal TV said.

The second round of destruction has been in the Kathmandu Valley and in the areas hit by the second quake. It was daytime when the second major quake hit so people managed to run for their lives and save them from falling houses, and rocks and anything coming down. The 7.3 magnitude quake sent Nepalese to take a shelter at the safe and open areas again on May 12, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people became homeless once more.

The death toll reported in the Nepalese media has reached more than 40 but it might increase, as the news of destruction and death would reach the home ministry in Kathmandu. More than one thousand folks have been injured. Those victims had been mainly the unsuspected people working to salvage anything possible from the quake wreckages, and the people in the regular business.

Academic institutions had been still closed otherwise thousands of school children and college students might be the victims of the severe quake. Wisely, the academic institutions would remain closed for another two weeks as reported in the media. They were supposed to reopen on the coming Friday.

People gone for work have had hard time to be with their loved ones after the second devastating quake. The ring road in Kathmandu has been packed with the vehicles. Everybody rushed to the loves ones taking any possible means of transportation. Unfortunately, the Internet and cell phone snapped for a brief time causing panic to the common folks.

The first quake on April 25, 2015 did not leave any cultural heritage for the second quake to tear down on May 12, 2015. So, no news about destruction of any temple or building of cultural heritage has been online at the time of writing this news. The tall temples that withstood the first quake continued to stand. They shook but did not come down.

Most of the mundane buildings fell down were with the red marks the engineers had put on them after the first quake. Those buildings were not fit for residing without major repair. The buildings had no humans to crush in them. The second-quake toll might not be so high as had been of the first one.

This time the most fortunate thing had been the rescue teams and medics were at the sites. Most of the damages had been done in the first quake. So, not many human structures were left for the second quake to tear down. However, some hills gave in to the quake falling down to the rivers. The high mountains shook off the snow from their bodies causing avalanches challenging the climbers. Even the tallest and apparently mightiest Mt Everest had to tremble from the quake and send the snow falling down to the base camp.

The administration of Prime Minister Sushil Koirala had been too slow to react to the quake. Former minister Dr Prakash Chandra Lohani wrote in the ratopati.com that he had advised Prime Minister Sushil Koirala to buy 400,000 tents on the second day of the first quake. Communication Minister Rijal complained a few days ago, the government had managed to procure 49,000 tents against the need of 400,000.

I could not imagine what stopped the ministers and the prime minister to buy or procure the tents even though the “Prime Minister Disaster Relief Fund” had sufficient fund, and numerous well wishers were ready to provide the government of Nepal with whatever stuffs it needed even at the short notice.

One Nepalese blogger diligently went through the working style of the administration and reported that the administration had assigned ten ministers with different jobs to do immediately after the first quake but none of them had done anything to that end. Why did they take the assignments if they were not to do anything?

It was understandable some of the ministers were panicked, too. Most of them have lost their homes. They had been as homeless as the common folks living in the tents at the Tundikhel in Kathmandu. It did not mean that they should stop working as ministers and enforcing the laws, and doing everything possible to bring back the lives of the people to normal. The ministers including prime minister had demonstrated that they were not fit for the jobs they had been holding. What these ministers had been doing was to recycle their commitments that they never kept.

Consequently, the international airport in Kathmandu had been chaotic. Some of the aircraft carrying the relief materials had to turn back because the airport had been crowded with aircrafts. Some of the aircrafts flew unnecessarily near the northern borders. The Indian and Nepalese media went wild. They wrote unbelievable things. The quake victims continued to suffer from the lack of tents, water and foods not to mention other human requirements such as clothing. These were all the consequences of the ministers including the prime minister not working, as they should.

May 12, 2015