Durban - A former Durban woman narrowly escaped death in Nepal when she was caught up in the earthquake that has killed more than 4 400 people so far. Nepal's Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said on Tuesday the death toll could reach 10 000.
Lisa Marshall, 37, the daughter of Independent Newspapers sports journalist, Tommy Ballantyne, wrote in an e-mail to her father how she was on an airport transit bus at Kathmandu airport heading to a plane when the vehicle swerved out of control as Saturday’s earthquake hit.
Marshall, who lives in Sydney with her husband, Keith, and 5-year-old son, Noah, is a past pupil of Our Lady of Fatima School in Durban North and a graduate of the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
She is a director of Wild Women On Top, a company specialising in training women in trekking in remote locations worldwide.
On the day the 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit, she was leading a team of 12 women and had been en route to Lhasa in Tibet to trek to the base camp on the north face of Mount Everest.
“We were suddenly flung from one side of the bus to the other as it shook and swayed out of control. We had no idea what was happening but, as the bus came to a halt, we jumped off it and the ground rocked beneath us,” she wrote.
“Someone close to me said ‘earthquake’ and then I began to understand as I saw hundreds of people running and screaming out of the passenger terminal and on to the runway.”
She described how she could see the airport towers swaying to and fro as the ground kept moving. The team ran on to the runway, as far as possible from the towers.
“It was the strangest feeling to actually feel the earth move beneath your feet.”
They waited in trepidation, expecting more tremors, as “sheer chaos” ensued over the next few hours, with hundreds of people strewn across the runway, baggage abandoned and airport crews on their phones trying to find out if their families were safe.
“We sat huddled on the runway watching the clouds of red dust that had exploded in the distance settling on the mountains around us.”
Later, when the group tried to get to the toilets inside the airport, the reality of what had happened sank in.
“We were refused entry by the officials and we could see why: there were big cracks in the floor and pieces of roofing and ceiling collapsed inside.”
Many people were crying and sobbing and cowering together every time another aftershock hit.
There was no water to drink during all this time and an ice cold wind whipped across the runway. Some solo travellers, who were feeling afraid, joined the group.
“It made me realise that our need for comfort and belonging is such a basic one and we all need to reach out to others more, not just at these moments in life when you face up to reality and realise you have little control over such a situation.”
A few planes came down to land, apparently because they were running out of fuel, but no one was in the flight tower to direct them, Marshall said.
No planes took off for several hours because no one could be certain if the runway was still in one piece or whether the flight tower was safe to go back to, she said.
“Eventually we were told our flight would depart at 5pm, but first we were made to go back into the terminal to be re-checked by security, which made us all feel extremely anxious because the building was badly damaged.
“All I could think of was to get back out of there in the event there was another tremor.” The building felt unsafe and the only emergency exit door was padlocked.
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We finally got through the exit and back out to the plane with no more tremors and our flight took off to a round of applause.”
Marshall said that
in the hours they spent on the runway, everyone did a lot of soul searching “thanking whatever deity we believed in” for keeping them safe. Eventually they were called on to their plane, which managed to take off.
Half an hour into what should have been a one-hour flight to Lhasa, the pilot announced that they would land in Chengdu in China.
The next day, emotional and exhausted, the team flew on to Lhasa in the Himalayas.
In Lhasa, they were told their trek to the Kangshung Face of Everest would not go ahead because all roads were closed between Kathmandu and Lhasa, with landslides and damage along the route making it impossible.
Although disappointed, the team members knew they were lucky to be alive.
“We can only take today and be for ever grateful that, wherever we end up, this was one of those days that truly changes the way you see the world. It makes you realise what’s important and to value human kindness.”
* On Tuesday Lieutenant General Mmamonnye Ngobeni said Pietermaritzburg Search and Rescue Unit member Lieutenant Jack Haskins and his K9 partner, Bear, were on their way to Nepal.
“We wish him good luck and we hope he returns home safely after the duration of the rescue operation,” she said.
The Gift of the Givers relief team, consisting of 44 people including search and rescue experts, doctors, surgeons and journalists, was also on the way to the disaster area.
Spokesman Ahmed Bham said a second team of 16 more people would leave on Thursday morning.
Daily News