Nepal’s historic landmarks reduced to rubble..earthquake experts met a week before in Kathmandu

Nepal’s historic landmarks reduced to rubble..earthquake experts met a week before in Kathmandu

The rapidly climbing death toll has surpassed 2500, including 2352 in Nepal, 60 in India and reportedly 17 in the Tibet region.
A further 6,239 people are believed to have been badly injured and rescue workers continue to find people trapped under rubble.
One Australian reportedly died after a massive avalanche on Mount Everest, triggered by the earthquake, but Australian authorities have still not confirmed if any Australians were among the dead.

Nineteen people were reportedly killed, including Google executive Dan Fredinburg, during the avalanche.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/experts-gathered-nepal-week-ago-ready-earthquake-30584089?cid=fb_share


Nepal’s devastating earthquake was the disaster experts knew was coming.

Just a week ago, about 50 earthquake and social scientists from around the world came to Kathmandu, Nepal, to figure out how to get this poor, congested, overdeveloped, shoddily built area to prepare better for the big one, a repeat of the 1934 temblor that leveled this city. They knew they were racing the clock, but they didn’t know when what they feared would strike.
“It was sort of a nightmare waiting to happen,” said seismologist James Jackson, head of the earth sciences department at the University of Cambridge in England. “Physically and geologically what happened is exactly what we thought would happen.”

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