KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) - Many survivors of Nepal's most recent earthquake remain cut off by blocked roads in isolated villages, a U.N. official said Wednesday, after this Himalayan nation suffered through its second major quake in less than three weeks.
The magnitude-7.3 earthquake shook the impoverished country Tuesday, killing at least 79 people and injuring more than 2,300, just as it was beginning to rebuild from a devastating April 25 earthquake.
The most recent quake hit hardest in deeply rural parts of the Himalayan foothills, hammering many villages reached only by hiking trails and causing road-blocking landslides.
"Damaged houses were further damaged or destroyed. Houses and schools building spared before were affected yesterday, roads were damaged," said Jamie McGoldrick, a top U.N. official in Nepal.
Among 14 quake-hit districts, some are barely accessible, and a large part of the affected population could not be reached easily because of damaged roads.
"Some are even difficult to reach by helicopter. We are facing monumental challenges here to support the government in these districts to have a credible response," McGoldrick said.
On Wednesday, officials with bullhorns walked through the worst-damaged streets of Chautara, a small town northeast of Kathmandu, calling for people to leave buildings in danger of collapsing after Tuesday's quake.
"There is danger!" they said over the bullhorns. "Leave the buildings!"
Most people, though, had fled into the open the day before and had spent the night in tents or under plastic tarps.
Meanwhile, a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter carrying six Marines and two Nepalese soldiers remained missing. It had been delivering disaster aid Tuesday in the country's northeast, U.S. officials said. There have been no indications the aircraft crashed.
Home ministry official Laxmi Dhakal said Wednesday that army helicopters were scouring the Sunkhani area, nearly 50 miles northeast of Kathmandu, for the missing helicopter.
Most of the people confirmed dead in the second quake by Wednesday afternoon were in Dolakha district, northeast of Kathmandu, said the district's chief administrator, Prem Lal Lamichane.
"People are terrorized. Everyone is scared here. They spent the night out in the open," Lamichane said, adding the administration was running out of relief materials.
He asked the government to send more helicopters and supplies and said many injured people were stranded in villages.
Tuesday's quake killed 16 people in northern India and one person in Tibet.