A second strong earthquake struck Nepal on May 12, 2015. We are relieved to report that our team reported in and they are unharmed. The families in the small village they were in when it struck are also unharmed.

“We are all fine. At the time of the first M7.3 earthquake near noon, we were in a very remote village, Thulo Guan, Balthali, an hours’ drive from Kathmandu on a rutted, narrow dirt road along a cliffside. No one was hurt in this village.

We were standing on the 2nd floor of a relatively undamaged house (newer construction from about 2008) talking to the owner when the quake hit. I have never seen people fly down steps so fast once what was happening sunk in! I actually saw the (minor) out-of-plane movement of the stone and mud mortar wall (about 15″ wide) when I got outside. I’m happy to say that house is still fine and habitable after the earthquake and the aftershock.

We were still there a short time later when the M6.3 aftershock hit. A couple of already severely damaged houses collapsed further. The relatively undamaged houses remained intact.

Several resulting landslides on the road made leaving the village a bit tricky. We expect to encounter more landslides during our drive to Sindhupalchok, northeast of Kathmandu, to see how we can support the rebuilding process in that region.”

Our thoughts are with the families in other areas who lost loved ones to this second earthquake.