Donate to Nepal
Chattanooga residents from Nepal will have a table at the Chattanooga Market collecting donations for earthquake relief. They will be at the market from 11 a.m. until it closes at 4 p.m. Sunday. To donate to Nickels for Nepal go to www.nickelsfornepal.org. To donate to Global Giving go to globalgiving.org.
A Hixson woman's daughter has survived both earthquakes to hit Nepal and is now working on relief efforts.
"We got lucky again," said Hedi Lee-Hesse after talking to her daughter Brenna K. Murphy on Wednesday morning and learning she and her boyfriend were safe following the 7.3 earthquake that struck the country this week.
The second earthquake hit Tuesday, killing several dozen people and injuring more than 1,000, just weeks after the mammoth 7.8 earthquake on April 25 killed more than 8,000 people.
Murphy has been in the country since January with her boyfriend, Drew Haxby, of Michigan.
The couple are using their own money to buy relief materials like tarps, baby food, diapers and soap to assist people in more remote villages.
More than 16,000 people in the capital city remained homeless before the second earthquake.
"Nepal is going to need our support for as long as we can give it to them," said Lee-Hesse.
Earthquake survivors urgently need toilets, sanitation systems, water, tarps and tents. The need is urgent because the country's monsoon season starts in June, Lee-Hesse said.
"It's an unending downpour of rain," she said. "Roads will get muddy and washed out. That's why it's important to get the infrastructure rolling."
Lee-Hesse is among dozens of people in the Chattanooga area with connections to Nepal.
Dr. Biggya Sapkota, a doctor with Erlanger Health System and native of Nepal, said some 30 Nepalese families living in Chattanooga have family and friends who remain in the country. The group collected more than $5,000 in donations to send to the country, he said.
Victoria York, owner of Good World Goods, an East Brainerd store that sells imports from Nepal and other developing nations, said area artists raised more than $1,000 for the country.
Chris Hockert, chairwoman of Chattanooga-based Nickels for Nepal, said St. Elmo resident Chris Smith flew to Nepal on April 29. He has experience in search and rescue and construction.
Nickels for Nepal provides educational support, school supplies and uniforms for children in the remote Mijar village near Kathmandu.
The ground in Kathmandu hasn't stopped shaking, Hockert said after reading Facebook posts from Smith in Nepal.
"They're rocking and rolling," she said.
Lee-Hesse said everybody has post-traumatic stress disorder because of constant quakes and aftershocks.
"Everybody is freaking out, which is understandable," she said. "You know, the hits just keep coming."
Instead of sleeping in her fourth-floor bedroom, Murphy sleeps on the first floor by her door, so she can escape if the building crumbles.
Her building was deemed safe after the first earthquake but she's uncertain after the second earthquake and continuous aftershocks.
Haxby, a University of Michigan doctoral student, is in Nepal to study social anthropology. Murphy, a mixed-media artist, is doing an artist-in-residency program at the Art Institute in Kathmandu.
Contact staff writer Yolanda Putman at yputman@timesfreepress.com or 757-6431.