Press Release: ASNEngr activities in Nepal Earthquake Disaster Relief, Damage assessment and Reconstruction

इनेप्लिज २०७२ असार ४ गते २२:३५ मा प्रकाशित

June 17, 2015

Dear Colleagues and Well Wishers of Nepal,

The massive 7.8 magnitude “Gorkha Earthquake” on April 25, followed by the 7.3 quake on May 12, and the aftershocks continuing to-date has sadly caused more than 8.700 deaths, 22,000 injured and destruction of about half a million homes in Nepal. American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr) has been actively involved in Nepal earthquake relief planning and execution since the day the event occurred as follows.

ASNEngr raised funds for Nepal Earthquake relief, post-quake damage assessment and reconstruction.  The fund-raising effort was supported by the Greater Washington, D.C. Chapter of ASNEngr and the Greater Houston Area Chapter of ASNEngr.

On May 2, 2015, ASNEngr published the Position Paper “Earthquake Preparedness and Disaster Relief in Nepal,” jointly prepared with America Nepal Medical Foundation (ANMF) and Computer Association of Nepal-USA (CAN-USA), which can be accessed and viewed at http://www.asnengr.org/earthquake_position_paper/.

  1. ASNEngr collaborated with University of Michigan to provide relief packages containing food and tarpaulin to Chhoprak and Kerabari VDCs in the Gorkha District of Nepal in May.
  2. ASNEngr has provided financial assistance to Nepal Engineers’ Association (NEA) to support the post-quake rapid assessment of buildings and infrastructure.
  3. The volunteer team of ASNEngr, led by Mr. Ananta Baidya, P.E., Chair, Nepal Liaison Committee, including engineers from U.S.A., Canada and Nepal, is currently engaged in post-quake damage assessment of buildings and infrastructures, in collaboration with NEA, Institute of Engineering (IOE) and National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET).
  4. A team of engineers from Canadian Association of Earthquake Engineering (CAEE) under the leadership of Dr. Bishnu Pandey, ASNEngr Executive Committee Member-at-Large and BOD member, is in place in Nepal conducting damage assessment due to the earthquakes. ASNEngr is working with this team.
  5. ASNEngr is planning to support ANMF in a project building health posts in Nepal.
  6. The primary focus of the papers in the upcoming ASNEngr/CAN-USA Joint Conference, August 29-30, 2015, New Jersey, NY, will be Nepal’s recent earthquake recovery, reconstruction, and preparedness for future earthquakes.

As a matter of fact, ASNEngr has been actively supporting the earthquake preparedness in Nepal since 2010, subsequent to the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, by publishing earthquake related articles “Necessity of Earthquake Preparedness in Nepal” By Rajendra K. Shrestha, Ph.D. and “Role of Structural Engineers to Create Earthquake-Resistant Buildings” by Kanhaiya Kayastha, P.E., S.E. and Ramesh B. Malla, Ph.D., with widespread coverage in general media in the U.S.A and Nepal, including www.nepalnews.com.  ASNEngr, ANMF and CAN-USA have jointly organized special sessions on “Earthquake Preparedness and Disaster Relief in Nepal” in the 4th Regional Conference of Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) in Houston in 2010 as well as in the Joint Annual Convention of Association of Nepalese in Mid-West America (ANMA) and Nepalese Association of Southeast America (NASeA), 2010 – 2013.

On behalf of ASNEngr,

I would like to extend our gratitude to your kind support in ASNEngr’s ongoing and the future activities to provide the much-needed earthquake relief and reconstruction in Nepal.

With best regards,

Rajendra K. Shrestha, Ph.D.

President, American Society of Nepalese Engineers (ASNEngr)

www.ASNEngr.org

 

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