[It was believed that as many as 200 trekkers
were caught by the latest weather, a freakish storm that began bearing down on
the Annapurna region of the Himalayas on Tuesday, part of the aftermath of a
cyclone that ravaged India’s eastern coast two days earlier.]
By Bhadra Sharma and Nida Najar
 |
| An avalanche victim rescued on Wednesday. Dozens were missing and feared buried. Nepal Army, via Reuters |
KATMANDU, Nepal — A blizzard and avalanche in Nepal’s
Himalayas climbing region have killed at least 20 people, nearly half of them
foreigners, in the midst of the October trekking season, district officials
said Wednesday.
Dozens were reported missing and feared buried
under snow and avalanche debris in the so-called Annapurna Circuit of central Nepal,
a favored destination among mountaineer adventurers.
The death toll eclipsed the last major
mountaineering disaster in Nepal’s Himalayas, when 16 Sherpa guides died in
an avalanche six months ago on Mount Everest, the worst
climbing calamity in Everest’s history.
It was believed that as many as 200 trekkers
were caught by the latest weather, a freakish storm that began bearing down on
the Annapurna region of the Himalayas on Tuesday, part of the aftermath of a
cyclone that ravaged India’s eastern coast two days earlier.
Fearing the worst, friends and relatives of
missing climbers reached out to each other via Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook page
titled “Annapurna Nepal Avalanche and Blizzard Info Share” became a virtual
bulletin board. “Our hearts and minds are on Annapurna, Nepal,” read the
caption on a photo of snow-capped Annapurna, the world’s 10th highest peak.
While 22 people were rescued on Wednesday,
heavy accumulations of snow — more than two feet in some areas — forced the
Nepali Army and the police to suspend further rescue actions until Thursday.
The army, guided by rescued trekkers,
recovered 12 bodies near Thorong La, a pass along a popular trekking circuit,
according to the Mustang chief district officer, Baburam Bhandari. The dead
included two Israeli tourists and two Poles, as well as eight Nepali trekkers
who were trapped in a blizzard.
In Manang district, four Canadians and one
Indian trekker were buried in an avalanche along the mountain pass. It will
take days to dig the bodies out of the snow, said Devendra Lamichhane, the
chief district officer in Manang.
Basant B. Hamal, the secretary general of the Himalayan Rescue Association Nepal, a
nonprofit group that promotes safe mountaineering, said there might have been
up to 200 trekkers making their way Tuesday afternoon from the peak of Thorong
La, which is at nearly 18,000 feet, to theMuktinath temple,
at about 12,000 feet, when the storm hit.
Some trekkers were able to scramble down to
safety at a tea stall nearby. Many were injured in the descent, while others
were unable to escape the storm.
Mr. Hamal said that the communication lines
were down in much of the region because of the weather, but that he had managed
to contact the temple on Tuesday, and was told that many trekkers had been
arriving there with broken bones.
In the same district, the bodies of three yak
herders who disappeared on Monday, swept away in a separate avalanche, were
located, but rescuers were unable to recover them on Wednesday.
October is one of the most popular trekking
months in Nepal, when thousands often visit because the weather is usually
ideal for hiking.
Mountaineering tourism is one of the most
important economic drivers for Nepal. Travel and tourism supported more than
half a million jobs in the country last year and generated $420 million in
revenue, according to areport released
in March by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council. It said Nepal
received nearly 800,000 tourists last year and had been expected to attract
more than 860,000 this year. The Nepali government receives $3 million to $4
million annually just in trekking licenses.
But the April disaster on Everest, the world’s
highest mountain, was disastrous for tourism, as it led to threats by
Sherpas to stop working. Many expeditions were canceled and tourists
forfeited tens of thousands of dollars, with many expressing uncertainty about
the viability of future treks.
Bhadra
Sharma reported from Katmandu, and Nida Najar from New Delhi. Rick Gladstone
contributed reporting from New York.
@
The New York Times
[Television reports aired on Tuesday showed crowds
in Visakhapatnam swarming a gas station and one of the only working ATMs.
Residents said that the lack of electricity had made it impossible to take out
money, and that a shortage of some food items was driving up prices. Channels
also showed locals in the state surrounding relief trucks bearing food and
being fended off by police officers with sticks.]
By Nida Najar
NEW DELHI
— The death toll from the powerful
cyclone that ripped through the eastern coast of India rose to 25 on Tuesday,
with most of the deaths caused by falling trees and collapsing buildings,
according to a government official in Andhra Pradesh.
The devastation was particularly acute in the port
city of Visakhapatnam, where the eye of the cyclone passed on Sunday, and where
15 people died.
Nearly 400,000 people had been evacuated from their
homes in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, though a relief official in
Odisha said Tuesday that most people there had returned to their homes.
In Visakhapatnam, the roughly 120-mile-per-hour
winds of the storm, called Cyclone Hudhud, had mangled and destroyed electric
and telephone poles, according to disaster officials.
“Communication is completely paralyzed,” said M.
Jagannadham, the Andhra Pradesh additional commissioner for disaster
management, who said that three districts in the state were badly affected.
Television reports aired on Tuesday showed crowds
in Visakhapatnam swarming a gas station and one of the only working ATMs.
Residents said that the lack of electricity had made it impossible to take out
money, and that a shortage of some food items was driving up prices. Channels
also showed locals in the state surrounding relief trucks bearing food and
being fended off by police officers with sticks.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in
Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to assess the damage.
In Odisha, 80,000 mud homes belonging to tribal
people were destroyed by heavy rains, according to P. K. Mohapatra, the special
relief commissioner in the state. Officials in Andhra Pradesh said that the
scale of the destruction there had not yet been calculated.
