Powerful Nepal quake kills thousands, triggers deadly Everest avalanche

Tourism is a key economic driver for Nepal, one of Asia's poorest countries with a gross domestic product that is smaller than all 50 U.S. states. Its 28 million people have the lowest spending power of any Asian country apart from Afghanistan, International Monetary Fund statistics show.

GDP Risk

Estimated economic losses to Nepal from the quake were initially put at 9% to 50% of gross domestic product, with a best guess of 35%, by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The country's shoddy building standards — many Nepalese reside in unreinforced brick masonry structures — and lack of preparedness for a major earthquake were the subjects of an international conference in Kathmandu earlier this month.

Nepal's National Society for Earthquake Technology had previously estimated that a large-scale quake in central Nepal could kill more than 100,000 and displace over 1.8 million people.

The U.S. will deploy a disaster assistance response team and urban search and rescue experts to help comb through wreckage, Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement.

Rural Villages

Authorities closed Kathmandu's international airport and diverted flights. The earthquake shook buildings in neighboring India and Bangladesh. Across Asia perhaps 100 million people felt the quake, the USGS said. While metro stations in Delhi and Kolkata were evacuated, no major damage was reported at India's power stations.

"We are extremely concerned about the fate of communities in towns and villages in rural areas closer to the epicenter," said Jagan Chapagain, Asia-Pacific director for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in an e-mailed statement.

"Roads have been damaged or blocked by landslides and communication lines are down preventing us from reaching local Red Cross branches to get accurate information. We anticipate that there will be considerable destruction and loss of life."

People living in Kathmandu fled their homes when the initial temblor hit, and remained out in the open as powerful aftershocks continued to rock the city.

"The old temples, houses and all have been destroyed," Sanket Lamichhane, who works at an advertising company, said by phone from Kathmandu. "Everybody is out on the road now, nobody is inside the houses."

Television images showed rescuers pulling out people who were trapped under the 19th century Dharahara Tower, a nine-story structure in Kathmandu that collapsed.

Right: Volunteers work to remove debris at the historic Dharahara tower on April 25, 2015. (AP Photo/ Niranjan Shrestha)

Nepalese policemen look for survivors in the debris of a building that collapsed in Kathmandu, Nepal on April 26, 2015. Sleeping in the streets and shell-shocked, Nepalese cremated the dead and dug through rubble for the missing a day after the massive Himalayan earthquake devastated the region and destroyed homes and infrastructure. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

'Very Scared'

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi called an urgent meeting to coordinate relief and sent rescue teams to Nepal. The U.S. will provide $1 million in immediate assistance, the U.S. Embassy in Nepal said on Twitter.

Among the governments rushing to help was Israel's, which said it would send in a plane to evaluate aid requirements and evacuate about 20 citizens in the capital.

Eight people died in India, according to Major General Anurag Gupta, joint secretary for operations and communications at the National Disaster Management Authority.

"It was so powerful and the entire house was shaking, so we got out," said Sila Gurung, 28, who lives in a three-story home with her mother in Kathmandu's Nakhipot district, close to the popular tourist site Patan Durbar Square. "Everyone is very scared, and no one knows when it will be safe to go back home."

Tectonic Plate

The South Asia region has a history of catastrophic earthquakes because the tectonic plate that carries the Indian subcontinent is pushing northward into the main Asian plate. About 60% of the India's land area faces a moderate to severe seismic hazard, according to its National Disaster Management Authority.

The 1934 earthquake centered in Nepal, just west of Sikkim, killed more than 16,000 people. A 6.9-magnitude quake in September 2011 jolted India's eastern Sikkim state, killing more than 80 people. The 2005 Kashmir quake killed more than 70,000 in Pakistan.

The U.S. Embassy in Nepal said on Twitter it is attempting to account for American citizens and provided relatives with numbers to call. "Our thoughts are with the Nepali people and we're ready to help," Peter W. Bodde, the U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, said in a message.

A man breaks down during a funeral of Saturday's earthquake victims on the Pashupatinath bank of Bagmati river, in Kathmandu on April 26. The earthquake destroyed swaths of the oldest neighborhoods of Kathmandu, and was strong enough to be felt all across parts of India, Bangladesh, China's region of Tibet and Pakistan. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

This photo provided by Azim Afif shows a small avalanche on Pumori mountain as seen from Everest Base Camp, Nepal on April 26, 2015. On Saturday, a large avalanche triggered by Nepal's massive earthquake slammed into a section of the Mount Everest mountaineering base camp, killing a number of people and left others unaccounted for. Afif and his team of four others from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) all survived the avalanche. (Azim Afif via AP)

Google Adventurer

Daniel Fredinburg, an executive with Google's privacy team and self-described "adventurer/engineer," died of a head injury on Mount Everest, his sister wrote on the social media site Instagram. He was traveling with the UK-based expedition company Jagged Globe, which said in a statement on its website that Sherpa guides and team members other than Fredinburg were safe, including two with non-life-threatening injuries.

Three other company employees in the same group are safe, said Lawrence You, Google's director of privacy, in a post on Google Plus. "We are working to get them home quickly," You said.

Separately, Google said it had launched a "person finder" tool to help track people missing in the earthquake and would commit $1 million to its response.

The trekking company Summitclimb and Summittrek, based in Bristol, U.K., and Lakebay, Washington, said on Facebook that its climbers were safe though the Icefall route up Everest was "destroyed."

Among those whose status was unknown was Iestyn Richards-Rees, who was attempting to be the youngest Welshman to scale the peak via the North Col route through Tibet.

Pricey Adventure

Hundreds of people attempt to reach Everest's summit each year, typically paying a minimum of $30,000 per person and often far more for the privilege, according to an estimate by Outside magazine.

The rising numbers of climbers has drawn complaints in recent years about overcrowding, littering and heightened danger. Deaths happen regularly from avalanches and other mishaps, often in the "death zone" of more than 8,000 meters above sea level.

On April 18, 2014, an avalanche killed 16 Nepalese Sherpa guides on the mountain. Another doomed expedition in 1996 became the basis of Jon Krakauer's best-selling book "Into Thin Air."

Manoj Keshwar, co-founder of Victoriaz, an adventure travel agency near New Delhi, said he hadn't been able to connect with his people near the Everest base camp.

"Things are bad," he said.

–With assistance from Tony Jordan in Bangkok, Debjit Chakraborty, Jeanette Rodrigues and Unni Krishnan in New Delhi, Adi Narayan, Bhuma Shrivastava and Abhishek Shanker in Mumbai, Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem and Jordan Robertson in Washington.

CLICK 'NEXT' TO SEE MORE PICTURES OF THE DESTRUCTION IN NEPAL.

A Nepalese man walks through destruction caused by Saturday's earthquake in Bhaktapur, Nepal on April 26. A powerful magnitude 6.7 aftershock shook the Kathmandu area of Nepal on Sunday. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

India's National Disaster Response Force personnel look for survivors in a building in Kathmandu on April 26. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

A Nepalese man sits in front of his damaged house waiting to salvage household goods in Kathmandu on April 26. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

An elderly injured woman is taken home through earthquake debris after treatment in Bhaktapur on April 26. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

 Nepalese people look at a cracked road in Kathmandu. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)