News — 25 April, 2015

Strong Earthquake in Nepal - HOT Activates! Report #1

We are sad to report that there has been a major earthquake in Nepal.

The best place to get information about HOT's response is via the HOT 2015 Nepal Earthquake wiki coordination page: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/2015_Nepal_earthquake

HOT and OpenStreetMap have a strong presence in Nepal and we have already heard from members on the ground there.

HOT Executive Board member Dr. Nama Budhathoki is the director of Kathmandu Living Labs and writes from on the ground in Nepal with  this brief update:
"The damage seems to be massive. Reports are coming every minute. The quake has damaged different parts of the country, not just Kathmandu. I just got access to the internet; lots of congestion in communication. People from Kathmandu Living Labs including myself  are safe. We are preparing to spend the night in open space. We will get back to you tomorrow."

Because of the great work done by the local OSM community in Nepal, Kathmandu as well as other areas are relatively well mapped but there are areas less well mapped.

Pierre Béland an Activation Coordinator for HOT has already been reviewing OSM mapping status and generating Tasking Manager Projects to target affected areas that are also in need of mapping. (See wiki paged linked to above)

Already many HOT Activation volunteers have been working with our peer organizations and traditional humanitarian orgs in an  emergency coordination text conference to help coordinate information about damages and needs.