Brooks Emanuel was depending on Twitter and the kindness of strangers Monday night for word of whether his father in Nepal was safe after an earthquake and avalanches killed thousands over the weekend.
“The place where they are generally doesn’t have good communication anyway, so we are still relatively optimistic that they are just waiting it out,” Emanuel told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “It is still very scary and we just want to make sure that there are rescuers going there.”
He and his family have had no word on Marty Emanuel, a 71-year-old Decatur man who was trekking in the mountainous country, since the disaster hit Saturday. At least four Americans are among the more than 4,000 people known to have died.
The State Department said all of the known U.S. citizens who died were killed at the Mount Everest base camp. The official death toll is expected to continue to climb.
Anne Emanuel told The AJC on Sunday that her husband, Marty, a sculptor and longtime faculty member at the Atlanta College of Art, was hiking with a guide they knew from a previous excursion in an area north of Kathmandu at last check. She was optimistic even though he had not been heard from.
Another adventurer with local ties, Jennifer Dudley, felt and saw the earthquake happening but was safe in Nepal, where she went recently to hike and to marry her fiancee, said her father, Douglas Spencer, of Lawrenceville. He said Dudley, who went to Brookwood High School and who lives and works in Colorado now, has been chronicling the trip in social media. Their story was picked up by a California TV station.
“She went for an adventure and she got one,” Spencer told the AJC.
As rescue and recovery efforts continued Monday, emergency supplies from organizations including Atlanta-based CARE and MAP International were set to pour into Nepal in the aftermath of the quake whose epicenter was about 50 miles from Kathmandu.
CARE said it has deployed emergency staff from around the world to join 150 of its workers already in the Himalayan nation. The organization is appealing for $40 million to provide lifesaving relief and to support longer-term recovery for earthquake survivors. It is initially trying to reach 100,000 people with lifesaving aid such as emergency shelter and clean water and then distribute blankets, tarps, clothes and hygiene items. To support CARE's efforts, go to www.care.org.
MAP International is shipping medical relief supplies including antibiotics, oral re-hydration salts, aspirin and vitamins to Nepal on Tuesday morning through Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Another shipment of medical supplies is being sent from Europe.
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