The town of Beni on Kali Gandaki

That was close. On Sunday, a landslide (look at the video below) thundered down to the valley of Kali Gandaki and dammed the river, about 50 kilometers northwest of the Nepalese city of Pokhara. More than 20 houses were destroyed. A big flood wave threatened. Many people in the valley – as in Beni, a town of 20,000 inhabitants nine kilometers downriver – spent the night outside their homes. The largest hydropower plant in Nepal, about 40 kilometers south, was run down.

All flood gates were opened. When the waters finally flooded over the natural dam, the wave was lower than feared before.  According to the authorities, no one was hurt.

The devastating earthquake on 25 April, the second quake on 12 May and the numerous aftershocks have triggered many debris, mud, ice and snow avalanches. But the real „season“ for landslides is still to come, when monsoon will start in late May, early June and the rainfall will be increasing rapidly. 

90 percent destroyed houses in Dolakha

No good prospects for the people in the mountain regions of Nepal that were most affected by the quakes and aftershocks. Meanwhile, rescue teams were able to reach the area in Dolakha District where the epicentre of the 12 May quake was located. More than 90 percent of all houses there collapsed, they say. Bigu Gompa, one of the largest Buddhist nunneries in the country was almost completely destroyed. The good news: The 57 nuns survived and are doing well. Locals of 18 villages in Dolakha have demanded that the local authorities immediately should resettle them as they were living under a constant threat of landslides.

Education to resume

The school lessons in Nepal, which were suspended after the earthquake, should be resumed in temporary learning centers next Sunday. According to the Ministry of Education a total of 16,475 classrooms in 6,902 public schools were destroyed by the 25 April earthquake and its aftershocks. In addition, about 20,000 classrooms have suffered major or minor damage. “The relief phase is not over”, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) exactly one month after the 7,8 earthquake. “We are in a race against time to assist people before the monsoon.”

Epicenter of the new quake (© USGS)

Nepal does not come to rest. Two and a half weeks after the devastating earthquake that killed more than 8,000 people, the country was hit by another strong quake today. The tremors reached a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale (for comparison: the earthquake on April 25 had a magnitude of 7.8). According to the US Geological Survey and the German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam  the epicenter of the earthquake was located in the Dolakha District, 76 kilometers northeast of the capital Kathmandu. Quite exactly there is Bigu Gompa, one of the largest Buddhist nunneries in Nepal. The nuns had just started to rebuild those parts of the monastery which had been destroyed by the quake two weeks. The Rolwaling Valley is also not far away from the epicenter. The valley is very popular with trekkers who want to see the most famous mountain in the region, the 7134- meter-high Gauri Shankar. The Everest region is near too: Namche Bazaar, the main village of the Khumbu region, is only about 60 kilometers from the epicenter.

Landslides and rock fall

Landslides near Namche

From there and other parts of the country, new landslides and rock fall were reported. Many houses collapsed. As with the first quake, it will still take some time before the full extent of the damage is clear. The number of the new victims is still rising. The government said five hours after the quake that more than 40 people lost their lives and over 1,100 were injured. Most deaths were registered in Dolakha followed by Sindhupalchowk, the district that had been hit worst by the first quake. There were fatalities in the capital Kathmandu too. Residents fled their homes in panic when the earth began to shake again. After the new strong earthquake, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recalled that Nepal urgently needs further support. So far, only 13 percent of requirement was funded, OCHA said.