Foreign Diplomats Try to Track Down the Missing in Nepal
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Version 0 of 1. KATMANDU, Nepal — The thousands of foreigners who were in Nepal when the earthquake struck have mostly been found, but hollow-eyed diplomats here still clutch lengthy lists of the names of those who remain unaccounted for. Three American women who were thought to have been trekking near Langtang, now buried under an avalanche at least 40 feet deep, are feared to have died along with nearly 200 villagers and other trekkers. Scores of other foreigners are still stranded in remote places, although their numbers are dwindling. Diplomats from all over the world descended on Katmandu, Nepal’s capital, in the days after the quake to try to find and rescue their citizens. While their tasks are less daunting than the struggles of Nepalis to recover from the tragedy, the diplomats still face major challenges. Visitors to Nepal and permanent residents from other countries do not have to register with their home countries, so most embassies have had to guess the number of their citizens in peril. Because a quake here has long been predicted, some spent years preparing. The Irish government, for instance, had helped to sponsor St. Patrick’s Day gatherings for years at two Irish pubs in Katmandu in hopes of getting a rough census of its citizens here, who number about 30. Other embassies relied on word-of-mouth estimates. The United States Embassy has tried to keep track of 2,000 to 3,000 citizens who are permanent residents, including the children of Nepalis living in the United States who had been sent back to be cared for by their grandparents. In addition, about 3,000 American citizens were estimated to be visiting Nepal at the time of the quake, according to an American Embassy official here who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. In the days after the quake, the embassy received several thousand inquiries about people believed to be missing. Some of the inquiries were hopelessly vague. One was about a man thought to be traveling somewhere in Asia sometime over the previous four months; another involved someone who turned out to be in Naples, Italy, not Nepal. Officials here were able to close the files for nearly two-thirds of the inquiries within a few days. The deaths of four Americans in an avalanche on Mount Everest were quickly confirmed. Other cases — embassy officials refused to be specific — have caused so much concern that embassy officials have sent helicopters in recent days to help them. On Thursday, three friends who had been trekking in the Langtang district were rescued by a helicopter hired by American officials. And on Friday, seven more Americans were flown back to Katmandu from remote areas that had become entirely cut off. Five of them had been visiting Serang Gompa, a 500-year-old Buddhist monastery near Bihi in the Gorkha district, the epicenter of the quake. Few places in the world are more isolated. Foreigners must get special permission to enter the area, which involves either a grueling seven-day trek or a helicopter ride. “The day of the quake, we were coming out of the temple after a two-hour ceremony of cymbals and horns and chanting, so we were already in a surreal state,” said Peggy Dylan, 62, of Sonora, Calif., who was part of a group of 12 who arrived at the monastery the day before the quake. “And then everything started to shake.” Avalanches began to pour down the mountains around the monastery, but none of the debris touched the ancient structure. Using a satellite phone, monks at the monastery soon learned of the devastation elsewhere. But the party of foreign pilgrims decided to stay. “We thought it was probably safer there than in Katmandu,” Ms. Dylan said. But after six days, the pilgrims ran out of the food they had brought and began relying on the limited stores of the monastery. “When they started eating through the monks’ potatoes, that’s when we knew we had to extract them,” an embassy official said. A helicopter was sent to pick up the five Americans, leaving behind at least two British citizens for whom there was not enough space. A few hours later, Miguel Berkstrom, 39, a firefighter from Mendocino, Calif., and Malcolm Harkness, 39, from Point Richmond, Calif., were in the Tsum Valley of the Gorkha district when a helicopter flew over. The two Americans had been on a 34-day teahouse trek with an acquaintance, Nicholas Cooney, 71, of Calgary, Canada, when the quake struck, cutting off their routes out. They had used a village satellite phone to tell their families they were safe, and their families had told the embassy of the men’s plight. When the three trekkers waved at the helicopter, it landed in the field near them. The men, including Mr. Clooney, gathered most of their gear and scrambled aboard. They left behind their Nepali guide and two porters. Among the Americans still missing are two 19-year-old friends from Seattle, Sydney Schumacher and Bailey Meola, who were trekking near Langtang. Diane Schumacher, Sydney’s mother, said in a telephone interview that she last spoke to her daughter on April 18. “She was really excited; she’d been shopping for supplies for the trip,” Ms. Schumacher said. “She loved Nepal. She told me she was really happy.” |