Nepal Earthquake: People in a Municipality in the Epicenter of the Deadly Quake’s Miraculous Escape

According to a media source on Sunday, at least 157 people were killed in other sections of the district and nearby Rukum West on Friday, but no deaths were recorded from the earthquake in the municipality at the epicenter of the deadly earthquake in Nepal’s Jajarkot district.

A 6.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the nation on Friday shortly before midnight had its epicenter near the Ramidanda hamlet in the Barekot Rural Municipality, according to the National Earthquake Monitoring and Research Center.

The Kathmandu Post newspaper said that as of Saturday night, the rural municipality completely averted human casualties despite significant physical damage to the homes and public facilities. According to Bir Bahadur Giri, the head of the rural municipality, “it is hard to believe how we all cheated death in the area when we see the badly damaged houses.” Many people think they were rescued by God because it is a divine place.

He said that there were five injuries in the rural municipality. According to the article, three of them were transported by air to a hospital in Surkhet, while two of them were treated at the neighborhood health office. There are around 3,500 homes in the rural municipality.

Hardly a single home has not been affected by the earthquake. According to Giri, at least 90% of them need reconstruction, and because almost 1,000 homes have been severely damaged, residents have been forced to live in public areas. The absence of fatalities in Barekot Rural Municipality has been certified by the District Administration Office (DAO), located in Jajarkot.

As many as 105 people perished in the Jajarkot area, according to information shared on Facebook on Saturday night by the area Administration Office. Of these, 42 persons died in Bheri Municipality, seven in Kushe Rural Municipality, one in Chhedagad Municipality, and 55 in Nalgaad Municipality.

According to the publication, the DAO has not recorded any deaths near the epicenter of the severe earthquake, Barekot Rural Municipality. Giri himself avoided death even though the earthquake caused one of his house’s walls to collapse. He added that many other people, not just myself, were going through similar things.

A small hamlet might be one explanation for the absence of deaths in Ramidanda village. Despite significant damage to the dwellings, no one was killed—not even in the more populous Silpachaur neighborhood nearby, according to Dinayat Gharti, chief administrative officer of the rural municipality.

Experts say that the epicenter doesn’t always experience more physical damage than other places. However, according to Amod Mani Dixit, president of the National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET), an organization founded by Nepali experts in the field of disaster risk management, it is uncommon and even miraculous for the epicentre to avoid any human causality in a major earthquake. He claims that the location of the fault line and whether or not the homes are sturdy enough to endure the shocks will determine how much damage is done.