“In just one small town where we’ve been active for some time, 400 homes were destroyed.” Raju Pradhan, emergency aid coordinator for Caritas, gave that figure to the German Catholic news outlet KNA after flash floods ripped through Nepal. The extent of the destruction, he said, “is almost beyond comprehension.”
The flooding began August 26, when a glacier collapsed in Langtang National Park and debris poured down the Trishuli and Bhote Koshi valleys along the Nepal-China border. Later reports from OSV News put the dead at more than 600, with over 3,000 missing.
Warnings that came late
Pradhan said the alerts the Nepalese government says it issued “came too late” for people near the source of the flood. Farther downstream, he said, “without these warnings, many more people would likely have lost their lives.” KNA reported that many people did not grasp how urgent the alerts were.
He is worried about what comes next. Rain continues, and he fears secondary flooding. Long-term relief, he said, “will require a lot of money, which we don’t have at the moment.”
Church agencies at work
Germany’s Freiburg-based Caritas is working with Caritas Nepal on food, water, blankets and sleeping bags, plus emergency shelters for children and teenagers. Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops’ relief agency, is also coordinating with Caritas Nepal and local partners to assess needs. It has opened an emergency relief fund that takes donations through online platforms, by phone and by mail.
In an August 27 statement, Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, who chairs the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, called on the international community to step up aid. He thanked the U.S. government for backing CRS and for the State Department’s deployment of key personnel to support the response, and he asked that the world act “as one family” for the Nepalese people.
Sources
- Catholic Agencies Respond to Nepal Floods, a U.S. Bishop Calls for Greater International Aid
- Catholic agencies respond to Nepal floods, as U.S. bishop calls for greater international aid
- Catholic agencies respond to Nepal floods, as US bishop calls for greater international aid
