Nepal earthquake: Rain and airport congestion hamper relief effort

Earthquake rocks Nepal The death toll from Nepal's worst earthquake in 80 years rose above 3,600 on Monday, with 6,500 injured, as rescuers struggled to reach remote hill villages while Kathmandu's small airport was overwhelmed by flights carrying relief supplies.

Nepalese media said rescue teams had failed to reach some villages in northern Gorkha, near the earthquake's epicentre, by Monday afternoon, more than 48 hours after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck on Saturday, due to overnight rains that triggered fresh landslides.

But international efforts to assist the stricken Himalayan nation were gathering momentum. Search-and-rescue teams from India, China, Pakistan, the US, Israel and the Netherlands are on the ground, with more from the UK, Finland and Japan expected shortly.

The squads are carrying emergency relief supplies and using specially trained dogs to search for people trapped in the rubble.

However, Kathmandu's tiny Tribhuvan International Airport has struggled to keep pace with the volume of air traffic, with capacity shortages forcing many aircraft to circle for hours before landing.

Many commercial flights from India, carrying relief supplies and anguished Nepalis hoping to aid distressed relatives, were diverted or cancelled due to the congestion.

Meanwhile, Nepali helicopter pilots took advantage of improved weather on Monday to fly numerous sorties to Mount Everest to ferry stranded climbers to safety following the huge avalanche triggered by the quake on Saturday.

Further west, aerial surveys of the worst-affected valleys, carried out jointly by Indian Air Force helicopters and Nepali military officials, revealed widespread devastation.

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More than 900 of the deaths have occurred in or near Kathmandu, according to police. "We are waiting for the earth moving equipment to arrive," said an armed officer trying to control crowds of onlookers at a building housing shops and apartments that had collapsed next to the capital's ring road. "We expect to begin digging here today."

Two other large buildings nearby were tilted menacingly and seemed in danger of toppling in the event of further aftershocks, such as the one that temporarily closed the airport on Sunday.

"For me the wait for the tremors to stop has been more difficult than dying", said Vikram Khadgi, who has a small meat shop in Patan Dhoka.

His comments reflect the frayed nerves of residents across the Kathmandu Valley. People in Kathmandu have organised makeshift camps in open areas to avoid falling masonry, with the government identifying 16 such safe zones, including the army parade ground in the city centre.

Thousands have been injured across Nepal and the UN Development Programme estimates more than 40 per cent of the country's land mass has been affected. About 6.6m of Nepal's 28m people live in the earthquake zone

IHS, the consultancy, said the long term reconstruction cost for Nepal, one of the world's poorest nations, could exceed $5bn, or 20 per cent of its gross domestic product, AP reported.

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