Nepal Death Toll Over 5,000; Survivors Struggling To Survive

Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

The death toll from the weekend earthquake and aftershock in Nepal has flown past 5,000 and is not showing signs of slowing down as rescuers say it’s almost impossible to reach some of the more rural regions because of landslides.

The aid group Samaritan’s Purse says that at least 8 million people are in immediate need of food and water.  A spokesman said that many of the families have lost everything they owned and have no way to support themselves.

“There are a lot of people sleeping out in the streets,” said Samaritan’s Purse team leader Patrick Seger in a report from Tuesday. “They are fearful of the buildings and don’t want to sleep inside. They are sleeping in the rain because they don’t have any other shelter.”

The BBC reported that the government is attempting to provide free services to the residents but they have no way of providing to all those impacted.

“There’s a rush to get out of Kathmandu. Thousands of people are trying to flee — some trying to head out to the remote districts to see how their families are, others including tourists trying to head toward India by road,” BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder said.

“But there simply aren’t enough buses to take them out and the highways are choked with vehicles, people and relief convoys. Tempers are flaring. The police came to the bus station to restrain those trying to board crowded buses, which made it worse.”

The Gorkha district, where the epicenter was located, is out of food.

“We haven’t had any food here since the earthquake,” said Sita Gurung, whose lost his home in Gorkha. “We don’t have anything left here.”

An Army spokesman told reporters they are trying their best to reach the region but admitted remote areas are trapped by terrain.

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