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 The Himalayan nation is still reeling from last month's
devastating quake measuring 7.8 that killed more than 8,000 people
and injured close to 20,000.
The U.S. helicopter was delivering aid in Dolakha, one of the
districts hit hardest by both quakes, on Tuesday when it went
missing with six Marines and two Nepali troops on board.
In the district capital Charikot, relief and military helicopters
brought people wounded when buildings collapsed and landslides
struck in outlying hamlets to an open-air clinic where they were
treated on bloodied tarpaulins.
On one flight was Uttav Nepali from Singati village, where there was
a large landslide under which authorities believed people were still
buried. He said only a handful of houses were left standing.
"I was outside when the quake struck. Bricks and the top floor of my
shop fell down and crushed my arm and back," Nepali said, as he sat
among villagers from other communities and waited to find out if he
was headed to Kathmandu for treatment.
The helicopters alternated between evacuating and helping find the
Marine Corps UH-1Y "Huey" helicopter, which lost radio contact after
its crew was heard talking about fuel problems.
A Nepali military official said it appeared the helicopter might
have come down in one of the rivers that snake through valleys in
Dolakha district east of the capital, Kathmandu.
HUNDREDS SEARCHING FOR HELICOPTER
Six other helicopters joined hundreds of ground troops in the search
for the missing aircraft.
"The info we have is that it is down in one of the rivers, but none
of the choppers has seen it yet," Major Rajan Dahal,
second-in-command of the Barda Bahadur Battalion, told Reuters in
Charikot.
"There are 400-plus of our ground troops looking for it also. By
this evening, we might get it," he said.
A spokeswoman for the Marines said there had been no confirmed
sightings of the helicopter and that she did not have information
that it had landed in a river. She said relief operations were
ongoing but diminished while the search was on.
"Primarily we want to make sure that we get all our service members
and the Nepalese service members home safely. That is primarily
where the focus has been today," public affairs officer Cassandra
Gesecki said.
Nepal Home Ministry official Laxmi Prasad Dahal said he feared the
search was diverting resources from relief and rescue operations.
"The work of sending relief and rescuing the injured people to
hospitals has been delayed due to this," he told Reuters.
Tuesday's 7.3 quake killed 67 people and destroyed many houses.
Charikot, about 75 km (45 miles) east of Kathmandu, was one of the
hardest-hit areas.
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Most of the fatalities reported from Tuesday's quake were in towns
and villages like Charikot, which were only just beginning to pick
up the pieces from last month's quake.
"LOOKS LIKE A GRAVEYARD"
Tuesday's quake and subsequent aftershocks forced many
panic-stricken Nepalis to spend yet another night outdoors in
makeshift tents and relief camps.
Dahal said there were 55 dead in Dolakha.
"It looks like a graveyard here," Aula Bahadur Ale, the assistant
administrator of the district, said.
"Even those houses that have not been flattened have developed
cracks. People are too afraid to go into them. We are still feeling
the aftershocks that makes people terrified."
A police official in Kathmandu said 1,928 people had been injured in
Tuesday's quake, which also killed 17 people in neighboring India.
The April quake destroyed hundreds of thousands of buildings,
including many ancient temples, and triggered an avalanche on Mount
Everest that killed 18 climbers and cut short the climbing season on
the world's tallest peak.
The tremors have left areas of Nepal perilously unstable, leading to
fears of more landslides, especially when seasonal monsoon rains
begin to fall in the coming weeks.
In Kathmandu, most open spaces were occupied by residents who set up
yellow, blue and white tarpaulin sheets. Sita Gurung said her newly
built house had escaped damage but she still did not want to go
back.
"How can I take risk and stay in? Every one has come out and is
living in the open," Gurung said.
"I'd better join them and stay safe."
(Additional reporting by Gopal Sharma in KATHMANDU, Frank Jack
Daniel in NEW DELHI and David Alexander and Phil Stewart in
WASHINGTONashington; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel and Paritosh
Bansal; Editing by Paul Tait and Mike Collett-White)
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