Yamiche Alcindor, USA TODAY
People and aid groups across the United States are stepping up to help Nepal as the death toll soars past 4,300 from Saturday's massive earthquake there.
Search-and-rescue personnel, medical teams and other trained American workers deployed soon after the disaster. Several organizations also sprung into action collecting money, supplies, and essential equipment to send to the South Asian country.
"Generosity and support during times of crisis is a hallmark of American history," said Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and government relations for Samaritan's Purse, a Christian aid organization. "Nepal is very much the perfect storm of disasters. It is a cataclysmic earthquake. It is the disaster that disaster planners have been thinking about and studying for decades."
Samaritan's Purse has deployed several staffers including an orthopedic surgeon, doctors and nurses who plan to provide emergency care through local partner hospitals in Nepal. The group is also providing supplies like buckets, clean water and plastic tarps for 30,000 households, Isaacs said.
Lutheran World Relief, another aid group, is also on the ground trying to meet basic needs such as the distribution of water filtration units and quilts, said Nicole Hark, the group's deputy regional director for Asia and the Middle East. The group has a permanent office in Nepal's capital, Katmandu, that works on a number of issues including long term development, food security and disaster risk reduction.
Soon after Saturday's earthquake, their staffers began communicating with partner groups in Nepal and thinking about how to help those affected get basic needs like food and shelter, Hark said.
"On a basic human level, you can't control what happens in terms of natural disasters," she said. "Your heart goes out to people in this situation because it is something that could affect anyone."
Meanwhile, two search-and-rescue teams from Virginia and California that deploy during international crises were in route to Nepal on Monday. The task forces, which work in coordination with the U.S. Agency for International Development, came from Fairfax County, Va.,and Los Angeles County. Each county sent a team of 57 people including firefighters, doctors, structural engineers and search dogs.
"This type of team is trained and equip to respond to all types of search-and-rescue including large scale collapsed buildings and other similar situations," said Dan Schmidt, a spokesman for Fairfax County Fire and Rescue.
In cities across the country, others are also helping out.
Hearts with Hands, a relief organization based in Asheville, N.C., is raising money to help victims of the earthquake. The group's director and president, Greg Lentz, said the organization would like to raise $100,000 for supplies for the victims and plans to purchase water, food, blankets and tarps.
American Leprosy Missions, a Christian group based in Greenville, S.C., began working in Nepal more than three decades ago. Now, the group is working to support the people in Nepal as its staff and partners in Katmandu mobilize relief efforts. The group's CEO, Bill Simmons, said employees on the ground are coordinating with their partners to find the most strategic ways to help.
Nepalese families living in the United States are also leading efforts. A small Nepalese community of fewer than 50 families in Nashville, Tenn. pooled together $5,000 to send to the Red Cross in Katmandu, said Ghanshyam Bhatt, president of Nashville Nepalese Association.
"The clips we watch and the news we hear — I can't describe it," Bhatt said. "It's awful. People are dying there ...There are still people alive under the rubble. The rescue operation is not enough."
Contributing: Julie Ball of The Asheville Citizen-Times, Ron Barnett of The Greenville News and Anita Wadhwani of The Tennessean.
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