“Clapping like hands” – the devious crack that narrowed in but goes deep under the hill…
Cracks are warnings of more landslides to come, and in Palanchok, Kavre, they fear the worst. On the ridge in ward 6, everybody’s worried about the cracks that opened up during the quake. Birman Pahari saw it happen: “In seconds my workshop collapsed. I managed to run out in time – but then the hill started splitting. It was clapping like two hands. The two sides were vibrating at different speed, closing and separating… and the crack was wide enough for a child to fall into it.” The gap then narrowed but it’s deep, and only one of many on the ridge. When the rain starts pouring in, will the ridge be undermined and come crashing down the slope in a huge landslide? Villagers are taking no chances – they are relocating. The same threatening situation is facing so many other villages. It’s a disaster bound to happen, predicts a nurse who just saw hundreds of similar cracks from a helicopter in Dolakha. The race is on to detect the danger before the rain starts…also in Palanchok.
