April 27--REPORTING FROM KATMANDU, Nepal -- Powerful aftershocks jolted Nepal's Katmandu region Sunday, sending terrified residents fleeing one day after the impoverished mountain kingdom was hit by its worst earthquake in 80 years.
As rescue workers scrambled to dig survivors from the rubble, authorities in Nepal said the death toll in that country alone had exceeded 2,430. They included more than 1,000 people killed in the densely populated Katmandu Valley and 17 who died in an avalanche that swept into a base camp for climbers attempting to scale Mt. Everest.
At least 69 others died in India, most of them in the northeast border state of Bihar, with additional deaths reported in other neighboring countries.
Saturday's 7.8 quake collapsed historic temples, ravaged infrastructure and triggered the deadly avalanche on Mt. Everest, where 217 people were still missing Sunday. Nepal's Tourism Ministry reported at least 32 others had been airlifted off the mountain, with 29 of them being treated at Lukla Hospital, a few miles below Everest.
At least three Americans were among the dead, the State Department said. They included a Bay Area Google executive, Dan Fredinburg, who was caught in the avalanche.
In Katmandu, Nepal's capital, just 50 miles from the epicenter of the quake, thousands were camped out in the streets and any available open space, afraid that dozens aftershocks could bring buildings down on top of them.
"No one is sleeping indoors," said Tamdim Dorjee, a Katmandu resident reached by phone. "All the buildings are empty. All the people are out on the football grounds and other open spaces."
Rescue efforts were intensifying as planeloads of aid and personnel started arriving. Soldiers dug people out of collapsed homes with their hands and carried away the dead.
"Many people are still under the rubble," Dorjee said. "There is no modern machinery to pick up the bricks. Everything is by hand. There is no electricity. We are not getting much news, but the newspapers were published. I read the Katmandu Post."
Frances Howland, a nurse reached by phone in Katmandu, described the panic when the worst of the aftershocks, a 6.7 temblor, hit in the early afternoon.
"We have a lot of aftershocks, but this one was really significant," she said. "When that happened, people were really freaked out and running in the streets."
Some of the city's major hospitals were damaged in Saturday's quake, complicating relief efforts, she said.
"Grande International is badly cracked and all the patients have been evacuated," she said. "Another hospital, Norvick, has also been badly damaged. They're seeing patients outside across the road. The main hospital, which is called Teaching Hospital, is fully functioning. All the new buildings downtown are OK."
With much of the city's transportation networks effectively shut down, families were having a hard time getting medical care for their wounded. Taxis ferried the injured to hospitals.
Sanjeev Lal, who lives in Katmandu's Baneshwor neighborhood, was finally able to get his 72-year-old mother, Bharati Devi, to the nearby Bharosa Hospital. She had injured her back while fleeing their cramped apartment Saturday.
"Even after all the trouble we took to get here, there is no X-ray facility, and now we have to move my already frail mother to another location," Lal said as he negotiated a taxi fare in the largely empty roads of Baneshwor.
Hospital emergency rooms were overflowing with patients with severe head and back injuries. Many of them were being treated on beds and mattresses that staff had dragged outside.
"While we are struggling to cater to the overwhelming number of patients, the high number of blood donations today and yesterday has been instrumental in conducting a large number of surgeries," said Numaya Gurung, who heads the blood bank at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Katmandu.
Television and Internet services were disrupted and phone and electricity lines were down in many areas.
Thousands were camped out at Tudikhel, a vast, grass-covered area in the center of Katmandu, turning one of the city's best known landmarks into a makeshift tent city.
"We have nowhere to go, and now I am running out of money to buy food supplies," said Raghubir Patel, a garment trader from Rautahat, in eastern Nepal. "When will the relief material be brought here?"
Organizers of a yoga retreat that had been scheduled to take place at Tudikhel were dishing out rice and potatoes, and companies that supply drinking water dropped off several tanks for those who have taken refuge there.
Shops and markets were closed Sunday, raising fears of shortages.
"People have been pooling their resources together, but there will soon be problems with food and with water," said CARE's Emergency Response Coordinator in Katmandu, Santosh Sharma.
Sarbottam Shrestha, a doctor, said most of the homes in his Kopeshwar neighborhood were new and had withstood the quake. But the aftershocks were so powerful that many residents were afraid to stay indoors.
"Four or five households now have put up tents in my yard and together there are 20 people here including my family," he said by phone. "Our family just had dinner. We have rice and flour, but not vegetables and meat."
He said there was food left in warehouses, but shopkeepers were afraid to go collect it.
World leaders rallied to aid the stricken Asian nation. Australia pledged $5 million worth of aid and supplies, and the Asian Investment Bank pledged $3 million.
The U.S. Embassy in Katmandu was releasing $1 million in initial humanitarian assistance, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan said Saturday. On Sunday, the Pentagon said it had sent a cargo jet carrying 45 square tons of humanitarian supplies and nearly 70 personnel, including a USAID disaster assistance response team and an urban search and rescue team from Fairfax County, Va., outside Washington.
The flight was expected to arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal on Monday, said Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman. It will join a C-130 cargo plane and 26 personnel who were already in Nepal to conduct a training exercise.
Israel was sending a 260-person team, including search and rescue units and medical personnel equipped to set up a field hospital within 12 hours of landing in Katmandu.
"We are hoping to find survivors between the rubble," Col. Yoram Lorado told reporters. The team had planned to leave Sunday, but inclement weather delayed their departure until Monday.
Japan was sending a 72-person rescue team.
People with family in the stricken nation were also trying to get there Sunday to see what was left of their homes.
Sujit Thapa, a Nepalese man working for an automotive company in Japan, was boarding a flight in Kunming, China, for Katmandu.
He'd been traveling when he got a news alert on his phone saying the quake had struck. He was unable to reach his family for six hours. When he got through, he learned they were alright but most of the houses in his village, Bhaktapul, had collapsed.
"The cement houses are still standing but they're cracked so it's scary to go in," he said. "I'm frustrated as well as tense. I'm dying to meet my family. I know there have been no serious casualties in my family but I want to confirm with my own eyes."
He said he was used to earthquakes after spending seven years in Japan. "But in Japan houses are built to resist earthquakes," he said. "In Nepal, it's a hodgepodge. There's no planning. That's why there were so many casualties."
Special correspondent Rai reported from Katmandu and Times staff writers Makinen from Kunming, China, and Zavis from Los Angeles. Staff writer Sarah Parvini in Los Angeles, special correspondent Parth M.N. in Mumbai, India, and Times staff in Beijing contributed to this report.
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UPDATED
2:41 p.m.: This story was updated with the death toll in Nepal exceeding 2,430; three Americans among the dead.
1:18 p.m.: This story was updated with at least 69 people killed in the quake in India, other details.
12:15 p.m.: This story was updated with new information on rescue efforts.
This story was originally published at 6:59 a.m.
