States escape with minor bruises, no casualty yet

Shillong/ Imphal/ Aizawl/ Agartala: The impact of the earthquake that hit Nepal was felt right up to the Patkai Hills that border Myanmar. The seven states felt strong tremors, but did not report any major damage to life or property.
Buildings developed cracks and people rushed out of their houses as strong tremors shook Assam’s Brahmaputra Valley. The circuit house in Majuli, Asia’s biggest river island, showed major cracks.Electric poles bent under the force of the quake in Majuli and Chaygaon.
Kamrup (Metro) DC M Angamuthu, who is also the head of the Guwahati disaster management authority, said state officials are on the field to assess the damage..
People ran out of their houses in Guwahati as tremors were felt for about two minutes. “Initially, I stayed inside my room. When the tremors continued, I rushed out,” said Haloi, a caretaker of an apartment in Guwahati. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi has directed the chief secretary to assess the extent of damage in the state.
At well over 7 on the Richter scale, the tremors shook Meghalaya for almost a minute. People ran out of their houses and office buildings. Meghalaya is situated in seismic activity Zone V; the highest on the seismic scale.
“We were scared as our office building is old. We were spared major damage,” said an employee of the state government. An officer in the state police department said there was no information of any loss of life. He added that damages caused to property, if any, would be ascertained in about a day.
People panicked in Aizawl and other parts of Mizoram as tremors were felt across the state. Lalrinkimi of the Khatla locality in Aizawl said she ran outside her house as it began shaking. She said the tremors left her dizzy and nauseated.
The tremors shook Manipur, too. The busy Paona Bazaar and Thangal Bazaar areas of Imphal saw chaos as people — both residents and shoppers — rushed for safety. The walls of a government school at Wangkhei in Imphal East developed cracks. Students and teachers of the school moved out onto the grounds.
Tripura, too, felt the tremors but did not report loss of life or damage to property, said state disaster management unit in-charge and deputy secretary (revenue) Shankar Chakraborty. Due to massive campaigning by disaster response groups at the community level, there was not much panic either, he added.
The earthquake was also felt in Arunachal and Nagaland.