Cut off from village and family in rural Nepal

Gorkha Municipality, Nepal - Kumar Bahadur Gurung, 37, came to Gorkha Municipality, a day prior to the earthquake where he was planning to continue to Pokhara, another 80km west, for an animal health training.

Normally it takes Kumar 2 days to reach Gorkha Municipality- starting with a 3 hour walk from his village, before continuing in local vehicles. If he tried to return to his village now – based on the information about surrounding landslides - he would make it only 20 kms from Gorkha Municipality by road and would then need to walk for at least a further 2-3 days.

This is the situation here in Gorkha District - just to give you an idea about how remote some of these villages are and how difficult it will be to get much needed aid to them in time.

Of the 176 households in his village, between 70-75% of dwellings have been completely destroyed.

Yesterday there was an unsuccessful attempt to land a Nepali military helicopter, another helicopter has apparently been loaded with supplies but at time of writing was yet to take off and it is unclear when it will be able to with difficult weather conditions.

Kumar spoke to village leaders at 10pm on the night of the earthquake. That was the last time he spoke with them. He said that of the 176 households, between 70-75% of dwellings have been completely destroyed. Of the approximately 750 villagers, at that time it was thought that 60-80 people were trapped under collapsed homes, the majority of which are children and the elderly who were at home because they were not out working in the fields. A further 20 were missing in the local community forest.

When he spoke to them they confirmed the deaths of two elderly men who died when rocks fell on them from the hills above but they believe many more children and elderly will be dead, buried under the debris of their homes.

Kumar’s own family- his wife and four children, ranging in age from 8 to 16, were inside the house eating their lunch at the time of the quake. As the walls started to shake, they quickly ran from the house, which collapsed immediately behind them.

When he first spoke to his wife by mobile, she was terrified, asking her husband to come and ‘rescue’ them. As he spoke to his wife throughout the evening, the children were hungry and demanding food.

The villagers rely on food – like rice, maize, millet - stored in their homes. But, with so many homes collapsed, they cannot access their food and were now searching for a local fruit found in the forest.

Right now the electricity that normally supplies the village from a 14.4 KW micro-hydro system - which Kumar presides over the operation of for his village - is shut off, likely destroyed, with no back up power system.

Villagers cannot access their food storage and are searching for a local fruit found in the forest.

Two houses in the town had 10W and 20W solar systems but they have already run dead. There is also a 40W system on the school building, but Kumar is unsure if the school is still standing.

Describing the position of his village on the side of a mountain using his hand, Kumar made a slope of approximately 45 degrees, just showing how steep and precarious its location is.

When he made rudimentary sketch of his village, he drew a steep cone-shaped mountain with the village fanned out just beneath the pinnacle. Beneath the village lies a steep cliff.

As he sits across the table speaking to me in the relative safety of Gorkha Municpalitly, he has the following to say:

“I am incredibly sad about this situation and want to rescue not just my family but all of my friends in the village but I don’t know what to do or how to reach them. There have been two unsuccessful attempts to rescue them by helicopter and I don’t know when they will reach them. I feel a great responsibility as the only leader from the village to have made it out safely. It’s been 2 days since I have spoken to them and I haven’t heard anything since.”

You can help families like Kumar's by donating to World Vision.