Namuna Pandey, a graduate student, said last month’s earthquake in Nepal completely destroyed her hometown.
She received a phone call from her parents about seven hours after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Saturday, April 25.
“Now my parents [are] living in [a] tent and everything is collapsed,” Pandey said. “Everything is trapped inside their home [and] they do not have anything to eat.”
Six of her family’s neighbors died that day. “I cannot explain in words. It was so terrible,” she said.
Yesterday, Tuesday, May 12, the Nepalese were hit with a 7.3-magnitude aftershock, sending them to the streets. Death tolls have continued to climb, yet dozens have been rescued alive from rubble.
After the happening of the first quake, President Mark B. Rosenberg reached out to Nepalese students for assistance.
“The tragedy in Nepal brings us together. We here in Miami are no strangers to natural disasters, and as a consequence of that, we have a special sensitivity,” said Rosenberg in a meeting with the students April 27.
President Rosenberg invited several faculty members to support the students during their time of need.
Sandra Gonzalez-Levy, Senior Vice President of External Relations, was assigned to be liaison for the Nepalese Student Association of FIU to help manage disaster funds. Elizabeth Bejar, Vice President for Academic Affairs, assists the students in continuing their studies.
“We’ll work on an individual basis with each of the students. We’ll let the faculty members know that they may require some leniency and flexibility during this time,” said Bejar. Bejar said most of them are graduate students.
“If they have anxiety or worry because they’re here and their entire family is abroad, we have counseling folks on site ready to help them,” she said.
Chooda Khanal, President of the Nepalese Student Association, said that funding is important for his country to receive medical attention, food and supply.
“If [we] can collect whatever — $10,000, $5,000, $2,000 — that is big money there back home,” said Khanal.
Even with large amounts of donations, Khanal said Nepal will never be able to completely recover. Ancient temples have been destroyed, especially in Kathmandu, the cultural heart of Nepal.
“Is it really happening, or am I just having a dream? Maybe a nightmare. It’s surreal,” he said.
Khanal also said that his last memory of being in his country was marrying his wife and spending their honeymoon there.
“There are a lot of memories, a lot of beautiful things, and I’m afraid that most of them have been destroyed,” he said.
Grenville Draper, Professor at the Department of Earth and Environment, said Nepal is in a zone of risk and can face another devastating quake.
“We know it’s going to happen. We know you’re in a zone of risk. What we can’t say is exactly when it’s going to happen,” said Draper.
Draper said it is possible to construct earthquake-proof buildings, but he said that the Nepalese may forget that it could happen again and ignore solutions to the problem.
“The engineers need to be aware of the siting [and] the various structures. The geology is important for site in terms of design of buildings and infrastructure,” he said.
“The problem with [earthquakes] is that they occur every few decades. That’s enough time for two to three [Nepalese] generations to forget.”
camila.fernandez@fiusm.com
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