Free Republic

A U.S. Marine helicopter supporting earthquake relief in Nepal was declared missing Tuesday with eight people on board, a military spokesman said. The UH-1Y Huey with two Nepalese soldiers and six U.S. Marines on board disappeared over Charikot, Nepal, at about 10 p.m. local time (12:15 p.m. ET), said U.S. Pacific Command spokesman Army Maj. Dave Eastburn. Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren said the U.S. military is hopeful that the missing helicopter landed and is out of communication. A military official told NBC News there is "no indication that there was a crash" but "it is dark," so they could...

A major earthquake has struck eastern Nepal, near Mount Everest, two weeks after more than 8,000 died in a devastating quake. The latest earthquake hit near the town of Namche Bazaar, near Mount Everest. The US Geological Survey said it had a magnitude of 7.3. An earthquake on 25 April, centred in western Nepal, had a magnitude of 7.8. The latest tremor was felt in northern India and Bangladesh. In the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, which was badly damaged last month, people rushed out of buildings as the quake struck at 12:35 local time (07:50 GMT).

Mount Everest record holder Apa Sherpa ran for his life when a huge earthquake hit Nepal, and now fears for the future after the disaster cut short the climbing season for the second year in a row. “Everyone here is scared and depressed, we have lost everything,” the climber told AFP by telephone from Thame, deep in the Everest region, one of the villages that is home to the Sherpa ethnic group. The tight-knit community of around 50 families has produced some of the world’s greatest mountaineers, including Sherpa, who is something of a celebrity having reached the top of...

KALAMAZOO, MI -- The state official who oversees regulation of oil and gas wells says he is certain that Saturday's earthquake in Kalamazoo County is unrelated to fracking or other drilling in the area. "I am extremely confident there is no connection," said Hal Fitch, a geologist who is director of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Oil, Gas, and Minerals. That opinion is echoed by David Barnes, professor of geosciences at Western Michigan University. "I'm as certain as a scientist can be" that there is no connection, Barnes said. Hydraulic fracturing -- also known as fracking --...

Just had another earthquake here in Dallas. Short, about a 3.5. Weird. .

A shallow magnitude 3.9 earthquake was reported Sunday morning one mile from View Park-Windsor Hills, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The temblor occurred at 4:07 a.m. PDT at a depth of 5.6 miles. The quake was classified by the USGS as "light" but was felt over a wide area of the L.A. basin. The Los Angeles Fire Department said it had received no reports of damage. A 3.5 quake rattled the same general area on April 12. Both quakes were centered on the Baldwin Hills/Inglewood border. The Newport-Inglewood fault runs along that area.

A magnitude 3.9 earthquake struck the Los Angeles area early Sunday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake hit about 1 mile from Baldwin Hills at 4:07 a.m. local time, according to the USGS. It was felt throughout the LA area, in nearby Culver City and from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach.

There's a new hazard in the Heartland.  The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently released a map highlighting the future risk for man-made earthquakes, and up to eight states have an increased chance to see ground shaking.  Azle, Texas, which had no recorded quakes for 150 years, felt 27 tremors from November 2013 to January 2014. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex continues to feel regular earthquakes. As Science Magazine reports, earthquakes hit areas of Kansas bordering Oklahoma 192 times in the last two years; the same counties were only hit twice in the preceding 35 years.  For the most part, the scientific...

Three people were pulled out alive from the rubble of their home eight days after Nepal's devastating earthquake, an official said on Sunday, but rescuers have found about 50 bodies on a popular trekking route that was hit by an avalanche. The current toll of 7,056 dead is likely to rise as an entire village was carried away by the avalanche and many more people are believed to have died, officials said. -excerpt- The entire village of Langtang was wiped out by the avalanche, said Ganga Sagar Pant, the head of the Trekking Agencies Association of Nepal... -excerpt- The village...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — May 2, 2015 … The last thing that many Israeli volunteers thought of as they rushed off to save lives in Nepal was the do’s and don’ts of communicating effectively in Nepal. Members of the IDF, IsraAid and MDA had only 24 hours to wash underwear, buy work clothes suitable for Nepal, get vaccinations, pay bills and make sure that their cell phones would work from this earthquake, shattered nation. Here now is a quick cross cultural communications guide written by one who has professionally taught cross-cultural communications for many years at...

KALAMAZOO (WWJ) – If you thought you felt an earthquake on Saturday — you did. And It was one of the strongest quakes ever experienced in Michigan. Officials with the United States Geological Survey said an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 and a depth of focus of 5.9 km was measured around 12:23 p.m. about nine miles southeast of Kalamazoo, near Galesburg. Multiple residents in several different regions beyond Kalamazoo — from Mount Pleasant and Sterling Heights to Lansing and even as far as Cleveland, Ohio — reported feeling a rumble and the ground shake for between five and...

(WOOD) An earthquake rattled West Michigan and other parts of the Midwest. The shaking happened around 12:20 p.m. It was felt around the Michigan. The USGS registered it as a 4.0 earthquake centered near Galesburg.

Officials are struggling to find 1,000 EU citizens who are unaccounted for in Nepal, six days after an earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people. An EU official said most are thought to have been trekking in the Everest or remote Langtang regions. Many are hoped to be alive but isolated by the quake. The fate of thousands of Nepalese in remote communities is also unknown. Nepal has called for more foreign help and humanitarian aid, admitting it was ill-prepared for the disaster.

Packets of “beef masala” that were sent to Nepal as part of a disaster relief package from Pakistan are causing major heartburn in the Hindu Himalayan country, which treats cows as sacred.According to the Daily Mail, the development could “trigger diplomatic acrimony” between the countries. Indian doctors at Kathmandu’s Bir Hospital told Mail Today that packets of ‘beef masala’ were sent by Pakistan on Tuesday as part of relief aid to the temblor survivors. These doctors – drawn from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) — are members of a...

American survivors of the Nepal earthquake are sharing their miraculous stories amid a stunning death toll that has passed 5,000 people. Three Americans who were trekking in the Langtang area of Nepal survived the earthquake then lived in a cave for five days with about two-dozen people before the U.S. military rescued them in a helicopter today. Della Hofman, 31, and Eric Jean, 32, of Denver, Colorado, and Cory Ascolani, 34, of Palos Hills, Illinois, described to ABC News the moment the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck and resulted in an avalanche.

Drone footage recorded over the Nepalese capital Kathmandu shows the scale of destruction following a major earthquake.

When the earthquake struck about noon Saturday, Greg Davenport was trekking in a steep valley in Nepal’s Langtang National Park, about 50 miles from the quake’s epicenter. “It was a massive shaking,” said Davenport, 50, of Seattle. “All of the walls started to slough off. There were boulders, rockfalls and debris sliding down all over the place. … If you were in the wrong place, you would be hit by a boulder and be instantly crushed.” Then, triggered by the quake, an avalanche roared into the valley.

Clashes between police and desperate earthquake survivors broke out in Kathmandu on Wednesday as tempers frayed in the wake of a deadly earthquake that took more than 5,000 lives. Frustration over the slow pace of the aid operation has been building on the streets of Nepal’s capital, where tens of thousands of people are sleeping rough in 16 makeshift refugee camps following the 7.8 magnitude quake. Scuffles broke out at the city’s main bus station on Wednesday morning after thousands of people swarmed there hoping to board vehicles back to their rural homes. When they were unable to travel, rioters...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — April 28, 2015 … Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon at his Jerusalem office, held a consultation on Israel’s rescue efforts in Nepal. Israel Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, Interior Minister Gilad Erdan, Foreign Ministry Director General Nissim Ben-Shetrit, GOC Home Front Maj.-Gen. Yoel Strick and MDA Director General Eli Bein, as well as representatives from the Justice and Public Security ministries, were also in attendance. “We are focusing on two efforts,” said Netanyahu. “Our first effort is to locate and rescue Israelis who are in distress in Nepal and enable their...

The avalanche of ice and rocks fell on the village of Langtang just after the ground started shaking that Saturday morning. Even before the family of Dawa Tamang could run for safety the debris had engulfed them. Tamang, 35, has a dazed look on his face at the courtyard of Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) where his family was evacuated by helicopter on Monday. Tamang himself was in Kathmandu with his elder son. Doctors examine his two-and-half year old son Thindup who broke both his legs while the family tried to escape from their house. His five-year-old daughter Pasang Lhamu escaped...