Nepal Earthquake – 1st Day Report

This first day in Katmandu is over. According to the GPS, we have walked over 15 kms in Katmandu. Katmandu is a unique city with a strange urban structure. Buildings are 300 years old which still are being constructed and unsafe. Beside the luxurious buildings, it is interesting that constructing skyscrapers is considerable. We have not seen any steel structures. Almost fifty percents of the concrete buildings’ pillars have been designed differently from what we do in Iran. The monuments have been damaged seriously ,but the rate of the destruction due to our first day visit was not that much considerable in comparison with the city’s expansion. Generally, the rate of destruction is 5 percents which can reach to 30 percents in some regions of the city. The emergency accommodation for these houses have been provided in the nearest open area with the lowest quality. It seems the environmental contamination is a common problem in the city not just due to the earthquake. Around the city, you can see the announcements foe missing Europeans. The active rescue teams are from China and Turkish rescue teams can also been seen in Katmandu.