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RESCUERS HAVE WIDENED their search today for trekkers stranded since a series of blizzards and avalanches battered the Himalayas in northern Nepal early this week leaving at least 29 people killed, officials said.
The government, meanwhile, announced the formation of a high-level committee that would monitor and coordinate rescue efforts following criticism that officials were not doing enough to help the hikers trapped along a popular trekking circuit.
With weather conditions improving, helicopters resumed the search today for stranded trekkers and were flying over a wider area, said Baburam Bhandari, the top government official of the Mustang district. Dozens of people have taken shelter in small lodges and huts dotted along the Annapurna trail, where deep snow has made it difficult to hike further.
Rescue
Rescuers have taken 78 trekkers from Mustang and 157 from the neighboring Manang district since Wednesday.
Information Minister Minendra Risal said the new committee, ordered by the prime minister, would directly monitor the rescue operation and help wherever needed. The committee would coordinate among the army, police, local administrations and the private operators now involved in the rescues.
The Nepal government was criticised for not helping enough after the mountains were hit by bad weather and avalanches earlier this week, with its initial assistance limited to two army helicopters.
The Annapurna trekking route, 160 kilometers northwest of the capital, Katmandu, was filled with foreign hikers during the peak October trekking season, when the air is generally clear and cool. There were also many Nepalese on the trails because of local festivals.
Two trekkers from Hong Kong and 12 Israelis were airlifted Wednesday to Katmandu, where they were being treated at a hospital.
They said they survived by taking refuge in a small tea shop along the path.
‘I thought I was going to die’
“I was sure I was going to die on the way to the pass because I lost my group, I lost all the people I was with and I could not see anything,” said Linor Kajan, an injured Israeli who said she was stuck in waist-deep snow.
“One Nepalese guide who knows the way saw me and asked me to stay with him. And he dragged me, really dragged me to the tea shop. And everybody there was really frightened,” she said.
Another Israeli survivor, Yakov Megreli, said they tried to stay awake in the tea shop to stay warm.
“We tried not to sleep. We tried not to get hypothermia. It was a very frightening and awful situation,” he said.
Both talked to reporters outside a hospital in Katmandu where survivors were brought.
The blizzard, the tail end of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier, appeared to contribute to an avalanche that killed at least eight people in Phu village in neighboring Manang district. The dead included three Indian and four Canadian trekkers as well as three villagers, said government official Devendra Lamichane.
The foreigners’ bodies were buried in up to 2 meters of snow and digging them out will take days, he said. Three Canadian trekkers who survived the avalanche were taken by helicopter to a shelter in a nearby town.
Authorities said five climbers were killed in a separate avalanche about 75 kilometers to the west, at the base camp for Mount Dhaulagiri.
The climbers, two Slovaks and three Nepali guides, were preparing to scale the 8,167-meter (26,800-foot) peak, the world’s seventh tallest, said Gyanedra Shrestha of Nepal’s mountaineering department. Their bodies were recovered Thursday.
An avalanche in April just above the base camp on Mount Everest killed 16 Nepalese guides, the deadliest single disaster on the mountain. Climate experts say rising global temperatures have contributed to avalanches in the Himalayas.
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What purpose does it serve to let Micky swan around South America? Living the life of luxury while he preaches his Socialist Bullshit here in Ireland? Be gone you fool, we don’t need a president
They don’t call them Champagne Socialists for nothing.
‘Micky Swan’…. I shall be using that in conversation today.
Couldn’t agree more, if we want to send out trade missions then lets send out experienced business people, not this pointless twerp.
Business people! You must be joking. Look where they got us with their greed.
And this little pointless junket cost us how much?, more than some struggling families have to live on in a year. Time to cull these wasteful political positions. I’ve no doubt the President is a genuine and honest man, but we simply cannot afford the baggage while being picked clean by an inept political system stretching back decades.
What a waste of time and money
Agree. A total waste of money, and Joe Costello – Minister for Nothing, along for the ride, visiting a banana plant- how apt coming from a Banana Republic!
Glad to see the mentalists didn’t let this go. Head of State in foreign visit shocker! These things have been going on since the days of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Calm down, lads. This is part of his job.
Small man makes big impression.
Seeing as impeachment of presidents is in the news today , when will this president be impeached for failure to protect our Constitution?
Wake up Dail Eireann or loose your jobs !
It seems el Presidente has been on a global junket since being elected. I would be interested to know how much travelling he has done compared to previous presidents.
Just hope he’s not stopped at Dublin airport with a load of coke in his hair bun.
our president looks like Doc out of back to the future :)
An awful lot of angry red hands supporting Higgins and his junket. Genuine question, what would they have done if he had to fly back to nationalise debt as he did when at a gig in Rome some time back?
I wonder will he bring us back a parrot?
*La ultíma día* surely??
have your say