Week 7 - Tragedy strikes Nepal again as 17 trekkers die in heavy Himalayan snow

Kathmandu, Nepal (CNN) -- Tens of thousands of international visitors come to Nepal each year to explore the spectacular Himalayan Mountains, providing poor communities with millions of dollars that they desperately need.

The perils of that endeavor revealed themselves in stark fashion Tuesday, when at least 17 people from around the world died after being trapped in heavy snowfall while trekking at high altitude.

A dozen of the deaths were in the popular Annapurna region, Nepal army spokesman Niranjan Shrestha said, while another five were in the neighboring Manang district.

Officials say more people are missing and it is feared the toll could rise.

This is already one of the deadliest such tragedies in the history of Nepal, a nation of about 26 million known worldwide for its spectacular mountain ranges, including Mount Everest.

The deaths -- said to be the result of two days of unusually heavy snow caused by Cyclone Hud-hud in eastern India -- come only six months after tragedy last struck on the slopes of Mount Everest.

Then, a bruising avalanche of ice swept 16 Sherpas to their deaths. After the accident, which came right before the peak season in May, many Sherpas refused to climb and at least six companies that lead Everest expeditions called off their 2014 climbs.

While only the fittest sign up for a mountaineering feat like climbing Everest, trekking through the dramatic Himalayan landscape -- while challenging -- is accessible to many more.

Last year, 102,000 foreigners came to Nepal to take part in trekking and mountaineering, the vast majority of them trekkers.

The Annapurna region is the most popular trekking area in the country and attracts many visitors every fall, the better of the two seasons -- the other being spring -- to join organized multiday hikes.

Conditions in the Himalayas can be cruel. But trekkers dying in snowstorms is almost unheard of.

Bodies buried under snow

The loss of lives Tuesday will affect many nations, and could dent confidence in an industry vital to Nepal's economic well-being.

Of the 12 killed in the Annapurna region, only four bodies have so far been recovered, of two Poles, an Israeli and a Nepali.

Eight more remain buried under the suffocating snow. Their nationalities are not known, said Shrestha, the army spokesman. It is unclear if any more are missing, he said.

The trekkers died Tuesday evening near the iconic 5,416-meter (17,770-foot) Thorung La Pass in Mustang district, the highest point of the 21-day Annapurna Circuit trek, he said.

"Those who stayed back in lodges because of poor weather survived," he said.

Two army helicopters on Wednesday rescued 38 more trekkers who were trapped in the unseasonably heavy snowfall, Shrestha said.

Baburam Adhikari, the top government official in Mustang district, said 244 trekkers crossed the Thorung La Pass and came to the village of Muktinath on Monday and Tuesday. But there is no information on how many began the trek from the other side of the pass in Phedi.

"We do not know how many are missing, but there is a possibility that there are people missing," he said.

Those who died seem to have lost their way in the snow. A rescue team found a group of German tourists at midnight Tuesday, he said.

Search operations will continue Thursday.

About 50 kilometers (31 miles) to the west, five people -- two Slovaks and three Nepalis -- are missing after an avalanche Tuesday night at the base of Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest mountain, police and a local outfitter said.

Injured trekkers rescued

Meanwhile, five more trekkers -- four Canadians and an Indian -- died in remote Manang district Tuesday, and their bodies were found Wednesday, Manang district police official Narayan Datta Chapagain told CNN via phone.

A Nepal army helicopter rescued three injured Canadians and their Nepali guide from Manang, Chapagain said, adding that he did not know about the condition of the injured.

The details of the deaths of the four Canadians and one Indian are unclear, according to Chapagain, but he said they were caused by heavy snow.

Nepal's government has said it aims to welcome some 2 million visitors annually by 2020, with tourism central to a sustainable national economy.

It usually rakes in about $3 million from Everest climbers during the May high season.

But most of the nearly 500 who had planned the ascent in 2014 abandoned their climbs, with only one Chinese woman making it to the summit.

Trekkers 跋涉者;登山者

Altitude 海拔

Cyclone 氣旋

peak season 旺季

trek 長途跋涉

Who: people who traveled in Himalayan Mountains, Kathmandu, Nepal

What: Avalanche in Himalayan Mountains

When: October 14, 2014

Why: two days of unusually heavy snow caused by Cyclone Hud-hud in eastern India

Where: Kathmandu, Nepal

How: 

Week 6 - Japan volcano death toll hits 48

The death toll from a sudden volcanic eruption in Japan hit 48 yesterday as rescuers discovered 12 new bodies in so-far unexplored areas of the ash-covered peak.

The figure makes the eruption of Mount Ontake, which was packed with hikers when it burst angrily to life on Saturday lunchtime, the worst volcanic disaster in Japan in almost 90 years.

Up until Sunday 36 bodies had been found, but many of those remained on the ruptured mountain as toxic gas and the risk of further eruptions forced emergency workers to suspend operations.

The grim news of more deaths came after media reports earlier suggested as many as 20 people remained unaccounted for, with an area of the volcano still spewing steam and gas.

Some of the about 1,000 troops, police and firefighters combing the volcano succeeded in bringing down 14 more of the bodies that were discovered on Sunday, with another 10 still there.

An official at Nagano Prefecture’s crisis management office said helicopters had been used to ferry the dead from the mountain, whose pockmarked landscape bears witness to the huge volume of ash and rocks flung from the volcano.

“We believe there are more people still missing, but we don’t know how many there are,” the official added.

Broadcaster NHK said earlier in the day rescuers had seen more bodies that they had not yet been able to access.

Hiking is a hugely popular pastime in Japan, with mountain trails promoted by tourism officials, who ask walkers to sign in when they begin their trek and sign out again when they finish, but a local tourism association told the Asahi Shimbun that usually only 10 to 20 percent of hikers register before entering the mountains in high season.

The report said 327 hikers had registered their presence on Mount Ontake at the time of the eruption.

Rescuers are hoping that many of those who cannot be contacted simply forgot to let mountain managers know they were safe.

Nagano Prefecture has posted a notice on its Web site calling for information on hikers on the list.

However, there exists the grisly possibility that many more perished.

“We don’t know if there are people buried deep down under accumulated ash,” a senior police official told the Asahi Shimbun.

The local fire department said 71 people are missing, while Nagano Prefectural police have received hundreds of reports of people whose whereabouts are unknown, a police spokesman said.

Authorities cautioned that some of those reports would likely have nothing to do with the disaster, which happened without warning during a busy weekend.

Hundreds of people were on the slopes of the volcano as rocks, ash and smoke poured from the fractured crater. Many made it down safely, but dozens were trapped on the peak.

Autopsies conducted on the first 12 people whose bodies were retrieved showed they all died from injuries caused by rocks hurled high into the air by the eruption.

Aerial footage showed a sticky blanket of ash smothering the upper slopes. Craters that appeared to be up to a meter across revealed where some of the projectiles had landed.

The roof of one of the huts near the caldera, where hikers are believed to have sought shelter, had been punctured by rocks as they plunged back to earth.

Volcanic tremors have been detected constantly since Saturday’s eruption, with underground water boiling into steam and breaking or moving rocks, a vulcanologist at the meteorological agency said.

The agency warned yesterday that the eruption was still under way and noted that smoke had been seen issuing from the Mount Ontake as of 9am.

Until yesterday the single biggest death toll from a volcano was 43, when Mount Unzen erupted in southwestern Japan in 1991.

In 1926, 144 people were left dead or missing after the eruption of Mount Tokachi in northern Japan, according to the meteorological agency.

From: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/10/02/2003601100

ash-covered 覆蓋火山灰的

remain unaccounted for 下落不明的

spewing steam 水蒸氣

fractured crater 火山斷裂口

What: volcanic eruption in Japan

When: Thu, Oct 02, 2014

Who:

Where: Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Why: eruption difficult to predict

How: 

Week 5 - Gas blasts in Kaohsiung

A series of powerful gas blasts killed at least 25 people and injured up to 267 before dawn today in Greater Kaohsiung, overturning cars and ripping up roads as terrified residents fled an inferno.

The explosions sparked massive fires which tore through the Cianjhen District (前鎮), leaving a yawning trench running for hundreds of meters down the middle of a major thoroughfare and littering the streets with dead bodies.

Dramatic video footage captured by dashboard cameras inside cars showed multiple blasts and pillars of flame erupting from manholes as drivers frantically tried to avoid being engulfed.

In its latest update, the National Fire Agency said the blasts killed at least 25 people and revised the number of injured to 267. Four firefighters who rushed to the scene after residents smelled gas were among those killed in the blasts.

The explosions, believed to have been triggered by gas leaking from underground pipelines, were powerful enough to upturn whole cars and split open

paved roads. One street had been ripped along its length, swallowing several

fire engines and other vehicles.

Witnesses reported seeing bodies strewn across the streets.

“I saw fire soaring up to possibly 20 stories high after a blast and fire engines and cars being blown away while around 10 bodies lay on the street,” eyewitness Johnson Liu said.

Local television aired footage from a dashboard camera capturing a loud explosion which tore up the road in front of a blue truck as it waited at a junction. Rocks and debris could be seen showering down on the street before the footage faded to black.

A second dashboard camera uploaded online showed a car frantically making a U-turn after the initial explosion only to hurtle towards another inferno coming up from beneath the road.

“I’m scared to death”, one of the occupants was recorded saying. “It’s like a bombing, let’s hurry.”

Residents were seen carrying the injured on makeshift stretchers as ambulances rushed to the scene and firefighters in yellow overalls began removing bodies from the area.

“The explosions were like thunder and the road in front of my shop ripped open. It felt like an earthquake,” the Central News Agency (CNA) quoted a witness as saying.

The fire agency said 22 firefighters were among the injured and two were unaccounted for.

“The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday and then there were a series of blasts around midnight affecting an area of 2 to 3 square kilometers,” the fire agency said in a statement.

A city government official said the blazes had mostly been extinguished or burned themselves out by mid-day, but a few fires were continuing. City authorities said they had sealed off 6km of road.

Residents described how the neighborhood smelt strongly of gas before the disaster.

One local resident surnamed Peng said: “There was a heavy odor of gas and ... then I heard explosions and saw fire spurting from a store.”

“My house shook as if there were an earthquake and the power went out,” CNA quoted her as saying.

Emergency rooms in city hospitals were packed with casualties and officials warned that the death toll was expected to rise.

The city government was evacuating more than 1,100 residents from the affected areas to schools and shelters as they tried to locate the source of the leaks and warned people to stay away.

The Ministry of National Defense dispatched about 1,400 soldiers to the scene to help with the disaster effort.

It is not the first time Kaohsiung has experienced a fatal gas blast. In 1997, an explosion killed five people and injured around 20 when a team from Chinese Petroleum Corp, Taiwan (中油) tried to unearth a section of gas pipeline in a road construction project.

gas blasts 氣爆

footage 鏡頭

dashboard cameras 行車紀錄器

engulfed 吞沒

underground pipelines 地下管線

dispatched 出動

Where: Kaohsiung 

What: gas blasts

Why: be triggered by gas leaking from underground pipelines

When: Fri, Aug 01, 2014

How: through the bombing of gas blasts

Who: people in Cianjhen District and so on