The devastating 7.8 earthquake in Nepal has killed 4,000 people, and some of the victims were climbers or workers at Mount Everest. Marisa Eva Girawong, a physician's assistant who graduated Rutgers University from 2009, died after an avalanche hit Mount Everest on Saturday.
Girawong had been working for Madison Mountaineering, and her company bio said, "As a physician’s assistant working in a Level 1 Emergency Room, with a focus on trauma and wilderness medicine, Eve will be a great asset to the Madison Mountaineering Everest/Lhotse expedition. In 2012 she completed her medical training at John Stroger Hospital of Chicago, recognized as one of the top emergency programs in the nation, graduating with honors for Master of Medical Sciences & Physician Assistant studies. Eve is currently completing a second Master’s degree and postgraduate diploma in mountain medicine at the University of Leicester (UK)." She had posted this Facebook update two weeks ago:
Officially the highest I've been so far at 5,550meters/18,300ft. Never made it last year but finally got to the top of Kala Patthar this year w/ @garrettmadison1
Posted by Eve Girawong on Sunday, April 12, 2015
The company released a statement, "It is with deep sorrow and profound grief that we can confirm the loss of our Everest/Lhotse base camp doctor, Marisa Eve Girawong. Eve perished in the aftermath of the avalanche that struck the base camp area following the devastating Nepal earthquake earlier today. Our thoughts and prayers are with Eve and her family and friends."
At least 18 climbers have been declared dead, including Bay Area resident Dan Fredinburg; according to BBC News, "Altogether 42 teams were attempting to scale Mount Everest at this point early on in the climbing season, according to Nepal's tourism ministry. That means hundreds of mountaineers, all of them starting and ending their ascent at Everest Base Camp. About 210 of them were trapped at either Camp 1 at a height of 6,400m (21,000ft) or Camp 2 at 6,750m when the avalanches hit, tourism department Director General Tulsi Gautam told the BBC. The avalanches swept away their climbing ropes and ladders leaving them unable to come back down the mountain."
Two Brooklyn friends who were at a base camp near Everest are safe after running into a tea house.
A man stands on top of debris from collapsed buildings on April 26, 2015 in Bhaktapur, Nepal (Getty Images)
The earthquake's epicenter was in Barpak, which is apparently five hours by car from Kathmandu, and at least 7,000 others have been injured. A global effort has been mobilized to provide aid to the impoverished country. The NY Times reports that the Nepalese are desperately trying to bury the dead:
On Monday afternoon, Parbati Dhakal and several dozen of her neighbors walked two hours down a jungle path, carrying 11 bodies attached to bamboo poles. They stopped at a riverbank where they lowered the dead into holes.
One of the villagers pointed to the people gathered there and identified them, one by one: “Father just buried; mother just buried; sister just buried.”
Back in Saurpani, an ethnic Gurkha village at the epicenter of Sunday’s quake, Ms. Dhakal said, “we have no shelter, no food and all the bodies are scattered around.”
The Washington Post adds, "Given the remoteness of the country, very little information is coming from outside the capital — only on Monday, three days after the quake, did Nepal's army fly choppers to three rural districts. These outlying areas are thought to have been hit the hardest by the quake and its continuing aftershocks."
One climber posted video of the Mount Everest avalanche as it hit base camp:
