Post by prion on Jan 14, 2005 0:25:34 GMT 7
US braces for earthquake in Nepal
By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service
Kathmandu, Jan 13 (IANS) Fearing a quake could strike Nepal in the future, given its history of being hit by tremors roughly every 75 years, the American embassy here called a meeting Thursday of its citizens residing in the country to advise them on what to do in the event of a disaster.
"Nepal has the record of being hit by a major quake every 70-75 years," said Constance Colding Jones, head of the US embassy's information services in Kathmandu.
"We seem to be falling into that time frame again. It is the responsibility of the US embassy to look after the safekeeping and well-being of Americans in Nepal."
The embassy called a "town meeting" of all Americans at Mike's Breakfast, a restaurant popular with expatriates at Hotel Fewa by the side of the idyllic Fewa Lake in Pokhara. Pokhara, the sunny city west of Nepal, holds the largest American population after Kathmandu.
US embassy officials will be present at the meeting to tell Americans what to do in the event a disaster occurs.
The majestic Himalayan ranges in Nepal were hit by a quake in 1934 that measured 8 on the Richter scale. The quake, which occurred on the India-Nepal border, killed more than 10,000 people in north Bihar and Nepal together.
The seismic record of the region, which extends back to 1255 AD, rings an alarm, suggesting that earthquakes of such magnitude occur approximately every 75 years.
The town meetings by the embassy, held once a year in Kathmandu and Pokhara, come on the heels of the death of a British aid worker employed in Kathmandu who was killed while vacationing in Thailand when the Dec 26 tsunami struck.
By Sudeshna Sarkar, Indo-Asian News Service
Kathmandu, Jan 13 (IANS) Fearing a quake could strike Nepal in the future, given its history of being hit by tremors roughly every 75 years, the American embassy here called a meeting Thursday of its citizens residing in the country to advise them on what to do in the event of a disaster.
"Nepal has the record of being hit by a major quake every 70-75 years," said Constance Colding Jones, head of the US embassy's information services in Kathmandu.
"We seem to be falling into that time frame again. It is the responsibility of the US embassy to look after the safekeeping and well-being of Americans in Nepal."
The embassy called a "town meeting" of all Americans at Mike's Breakfast, a restaurant popular with expatriates at Hotel Fewa by the side of the idyllic Fewa Lake in Pokhara. Pokhara, the sunny city west of Nepal, holds the largest American population after Kathmandu.
US embassy officials will be present at the meeting to tell Americans what to do in the event a disaster occurs.
The majestic Himalayan ranges in Nepal were hit by a quake in 1934 that measured 8 on the Richter scale. The quake, which occurred on the India-Nepal border, killed more than 10,000 people in north Bihar and Nepal together.
The seismic record of the region, which extends back to 1255 AD, rings an alarm, suggesting that earthquakes of such magnitude occur approximately every 75 years.
The town meetings by the embassy, held once a year in Kathmandu and Pokhara, come on the heels of the death of a British aid worker employed in Kathmandu who was killed while vacationing in Thailand when the Dec 26 tsunami struck.