A magnitude 7.8 earthquake violently shook the region on Saturday. Its epicenter, the point on the ground directly above the quake, was 50 miles northwest of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and it was relatively shallow, which made it more damaging. Journalists say there's rubble everywhere in Kathmandu. Landscapes, cityscapes have been altered. The quake and a strong 6.7 magnitude aftershock that hit on Sunday, killed at least 2,500 people. Most of the victims were in Nepal, though dozens also died in India and Tibet.

 

The tremors shook boulders and snow on Mount Everest, causing avalanches, killing at least 17 climbers there and stranding some others.

 

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. International aid and rescuers were headed there from neighboring China and India and from as far away as Australia and the U.S. CNN's Impact Your World site has a list of some of the organizations that are helping. A link to that is at cnnstudentnews.com.

 

As rescue and recovery efforts continue in Nepal, some terrified survivors are spending their nights outside, as officials find victims in the rubble of businesses and homes old and new.

 

"I'm from Kathmandu. I have a lot of family members there, a lot of friends. Kathmandu is a very congested city. There's officially, the number is about a million people live there, but unofficially, many government officials I will tell you about four to five million people live in the Kathmandu Valley area. A lot of the buildings are built very close to each other.

 

In Nepal, people always talk about this impending earthquake. So the experts had always warned that every 60 to 70 years, there will be a major earthquake in Kathmandu. Now, the last major one, a magnitude about 8.4 on the Richter scale, that was about, that was back in 1934. So an earthquake was almost overdue.

 

In terms of preparation, when you talk about the hospitals, when you talk about the military, when you talk about just people in general, I'm not sure that many people were prepared. Now, the government the past two years said that most of the buildings, new constructions have to be earthquake-proof. But those building codes are not followed very strictly.

 

And a lot of people in Kathmandu don't even realize how many people have died right now. They're just, you know, trying to fend for themselves. What really stood out to me, you know, when I saw those pictures, is the, the historical buildings. These are buildings that have withstood so many earthquakes. They're sort of the cultural symbols of Nepal. We're talking about Dharahara, which is the, the long, the tall white tower nine stories high. This was an iconic building in Kathmandu. It's, you know, it's like the Eiffel Tower of Nepal. The loss to the cultural heritage is huge. There are these four UNESCO national heritage sites completely demolished."