
M7.9 Earthquake in Nepal - dilipray
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us20002926
======
dpacmittal
This was a huge earthquake. Aftershocks are still continuing and have been
said to continue for next 2 to 3 days although they will be in descending
order. People are advised to stay alert and be out in open areas. People
should also stockpile food, water, batteries. Also, please use your phone less
(save charge for emergency), and unclog the network for people trying to reach
their loved ones.

I'm from Nepal (not living there anymore but have tons of family and friend
back at home). Hoping everyone is safe, and asking people to NOT PANIC in any
situation.

Some resources: Google people finder -
[https://google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-
earthquake](https://google.org/personfinder/2015-nepal-earthquake)

Helpline numbers in nepal:
[http://i.imgur.com/e0mRxgz.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/e0mRxgz.jpg)

Helpline number in India:

+91 11 2301 2113

+91 11 2301 4104

+91 11 2301 7905

~~~
ohashi
Facebook has a nice feature safety check I just got notified about:
[https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/nepalearthquake/](https://www.facebook.com/safetycheck/nepalearthquake/)

~~~
praneshp
It's a little bit annoying though. Friends and others living in random parts
of the world are marking themselves safe. Not all of them are narcissistic, so
I wonder if the feature is not very intuitive?

Not taking away how useful it is though. Even with all the noise it was
reassuring to know friends in the tremor area (which included a large part of
North India) were safe.

~~~
ohashi
I haven't noticed much abuse. I lived in Nepal for a couple years and have a
lot of friends still there. It was nice to see all of them marking themselves
as safe versus the random display of facebook status updates saying they were
ok. Dont know whose update I saw or didn't see.

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joshuahedlund
For immediate email notifications about earthquakes, here is the USGS link[1].
You can set up customized magnitude ranges for customized parts of the globe,
it's a pretty neat little service. Rule of thumb for context is 7.0+ happen
about once a month and 8.0+ happen about once a year... I have it email me
about every 7+ on the globe, every 6+ in my country (US) and I think every 3+
within a decent range of my city.
[1][https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/](https://sslearthquake.usgs.gov/ens/)

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pixelm1
Here is a reliable nonprofit if you want to give to Nepal.
[http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nepal-earthquake-
relief...](http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/nepal-earthquake-relief-fund/)

Charity Navigator Rating
[http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary...](http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=11648)

~~~
neokya
I created list of reliable organizations which are working on it and accepting
donations
[https://github.com/chhantyal/PrayForNepal](https://github.com/chhantyal/PrayForNepal)

~~~
ptaipale
Appreciated, but just to nitpick, you might want to spell it "pray", not
"prey". With "prey" there is the association "a person or thing that is the
victim of an enemy, a swindler, a disease, etc.; gull."

Which is a thing that always tends to come up at a time when lots of people
are looking for ways to help.

~~~
neokya
Thanks. Already fixed it - that was my incorrect spelling rather than not
understanding the meaning.

------
lordnacho
This is awful for people there.

I don't want to be rude about the 3rd world, but there are techniques for
making structures that mitigate the effects of a quake. Of course there are
impediments to implementing these things (economic, legal), but every time I
hear about collapsed buildings and such I wonder how many people would have
been saved. 7.9 is quite a lot though, and you'd expect deaths even in modern
countries.

The other sad thing I've noticed is the death toll. No idea if this is
actually true, but it feels like with 3rd world disasters, the estimate just
keeps climbing every day. In the West it's often the other way (people don't
come back to life, it's just that the initial estimates come down, for
instance Sep 11 went from 50K to 3K).

~~~
joosters
I hate the body counts in disaster news coverage. Why do we spend so long
speculating on whether it is 10,000 dead or 15,000 dead? It doesn't matter to
the vast majority of viewers, yet we get constant updates and speculation.
It's just morbid. Even to those who have loved ones affected, the count is
irrelevant. It's like we feel compelled to measure the awfulness of each
disaster in order to rank and compare them. Please stop! (And if you put
'there are fears that the death toll could rise' in a news report, you are
both padding out your story and revelling in the death counts. Again, just
stop.)

~~~
sanmon3186
The count has some meaning for post disaster preparedness

~~~
joosters
Absolutely, but that count doesn't and won't be sourced from a 24 hour news
channel, newspaper or shoddy news website.

Likewise, in the grand scheme of things, it is important to know the magnitude
of the human cost of a disaster. But not anywhere near a minute-by-minute
basis. ("We're hearing that the death count has risen to 12"... and so on).

------
kefs
reddit live thread:
[https://www.reddit.com/live/usqod2db8ogh](https://www.reddit.com/live/usqod2db8ogh)

~~~
TeMPOraL
Just now from the live thread:

> _A C-130 Hercules will be taking 10 NDRF (National Disaster Response force)
> from India to Nepal. Each NDRF team consists of 45 personnel including
> engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and medical /paramedics.
> They have a proven track record of working in disaster areas._

Part of me is getting worried. If I'm reading this correctly, they're shipping
_450_ people via single C-130. What happens if the plane breaks? India will be
out of NDRFs?

~~~
inetsee
The C-130 does not have the capacity to transport this many people in one
flight, especially including the gear they will most likely be taking with
them. There may be several C-130s involved in this operation. It's possible
that one C-130 could get all these NRDF personnel there in one day with
several flights. I would expect that the C-130(s) will be involved in flight
operations over the next several days (or weeks) in support of this operation.

------
neokya
If you want to donate, here is list of reliable organizations who are working
with victims of Nepal earthquake and accepting donations
[https://github.com/chhantyal/PrayForNepal](https://github.com/chhantyal/PrayForNepal)

------
perryh2
CNN article: [http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/25/asia/nepal-
earthquake-7-5-magn...](http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/25/asia/nepal-
earthquake-7-5-magnitude/index.html)

------
grecy
It seems the quake caused some big earthquakes on Everest, reports are a
little unclear now but it seems damage was done.

[https://twitter.com/danielmazur](https://twitter.com/danielmazur)

~~~
rprameshwor
Some casualities have been reported around the Everest Base Camp Area.

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xasos
Please, please, please don't donate to an undirected organization where the
money might not even go to Nepal, or the organization takes such large cuts.

~~~
EugeneOZ
well, it's not so dangerous, don't stop people to do it. Better to donate with
chance 50% that this money will go to Nepal directly, than don't donate at
all.

~~~
dyoo1979
You assume that it's not dangerous even if it doesn't go to folks who would be
helped. I disagree: the possibility of contributing to frauds is not harmless.
There is also opportunity cost: if you've donated to someone who is
incompetent, then you no longer have those resources to fund someone who can
make better use of those funds.

Ideally, you want to focus on the folks who can make a difference. Just
funding folks with good intentions isn't enough. As an example of a group that
appears to want to help drug addicts, but is pretty dangerously incompetent at
it, listen to the Prologue and Act One of the This American Life story "Not
It": [http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/554/n...](http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-
archives/episode/554/not-it)

~~~
EugeneOZ
I don't assume, it's simply logic. If you donate you do have chance to help,
if you don't - you don't. It's easy enough to find well-known foundation and
give them money.

I also use Google One and my weekly donation there is around $20. It's really
easy, don't invent reasons against doing it.

~~~
dyoo1979
Sure! The point I'm trying to make is: pick good representatives. It's
laudable to help the needy. Make sure the representatives you pick have the
will and capability to do good with the resources you're sending.

------
RockyMcNuts
728,000 living in area of 'violent' shaking, 5,368,000 in area of 'very
strong' or higher (not 100% sure I'm reading it right).

[http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Nep...](http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Nepal_InitialSA_V1.pdf)

will be a miracle if not many thousands killed.

------
swatkat
Indian Ministry of External Affairs has opened a 24-hour control room to
coordinate rescue operations in Nepal.

[https://twitter.com/meacontrolroom](https://twitter.com/meacontrolroom)

[https://twitter.com/MEAIndia](https://twitter.com/MEAIndia)

------
anaxag0ras
Nepal Ham Radio Emergency Traffic is on 14.215khz & 14.205khz. You can listen
on WebSDR.
[http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/](http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/)

------
clockwerx
[http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2015-04-25_strong_earth...](http://hot.openstreetmap.org/updates/2015-04-25_strong_earthquake_in_nepal_hot_activates)

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taksintik
Terrible news. Kathmandu is only 40 mi away from the epicenter. That city is
extremely dense (1mm+ population) with poor infrastructure. Hope the damage
isn't too bad.

~~~
chii
just as an aside, why do i keep seeing people use 'mm' to stand for million?
Is it cultural/country based? i don't think it's a western trait to use 'mm'
for million (more common is to just use 'm', or 'mil').

~~~
losvedir
I do it sometimes (American here). I've always thought of it as M = 1,000 in
roman numerals so MM = 1,000 x 1,000. I think I picked it up from a couple
years in finance where it's more common.

------
sidcool
The aftershocks were felt in many parts of India. There have been casualties
in Delhi.

------
octatoan
It's been felt all over India too.

------
throwaway_97
School let us off early after the earthquake in Assam. It was felt for a full
minute.

------
wanda
There's just something grim about that /favourite star/ icon used by USGS to
indicate the quake's epicentre on the map.

~~~
mahouse
"Favourite star" icon? Sorry but stars have been used as landmarks since
forever.

~~~
freehunter
To be fair, it's not terribly _common_ , especially to use a gold colored
star. Usually a black star or a white star with a black outline is more
common.

However you're right, it's not without precedent. Here's a very similar star
being used by the US Government in one of their maps:
[http://www.usgs.gov/state/images/maps/AK.jpg](http://www.usgs.gov/state/images/maps/AK.jpg)

