More of Carl LaCasse’s photography, including images of Nepal.
A Vancouver man is witnessing first-hand the destruction and devastation felt in Nepal after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck the region Saturday.
Photojournalist Carl LaCasse, 54, was in the country with a group from Portland-area nonprofit Ignite the World Ministries. The group’s goal was to learn about and document the needs of people in countries including the Philippines, Nepal and Bhutan.
LaCasse was taking a break from capturing photos and videos of a church service in Kathmandu, Nepal, when he heard a loud bang — as if hail had hit a tin roof.
“Then the ground just shook uncontrollably,” -LaCasse said in a Monday interview with The Columbian. “I felt like I was in a washing machine.”
The earthquake pushed him into the air about a foot, and he fell.
“I stood up as best I could, but I was surfing,” he said. “It was really odd how the earth was just rolling and shaking, and it lasted over two minutes.”
The people in the church began to run, flooding out the doorway near -LaCasse. He yelled at them to stop.
“They were just trampling over anybody. People were just falling like dominos,” he said. “With the earth moving like it was, they were all falling over any way. It was absolute chaos.”
While living in Santa Barbara County, Calif., LaCasse had been trained in urban rescue, which focuses on how to respond in an earthquake.
Halfway around the world, his training kicked in.
“I did not panic; I stayed calm,” he said.
The quake was followed by dozens of aftershocks, short bursts of rattling that lasted about 10 seconds each, LaCasse said.
“Every time one of them hit, you’d just hear tons of screaming,” he said.
Crowds of people formed on the streets and chanted and prayed together.
“It’s kind of surreal,” -LaCasse said.
In the first two days after the quake, LaCasse visited damaged areas and hospitals, continuing his work of documenting the need. When asked to describe what he saw, LaCasse grew quiet for a moment, searching for words that didn’t come.
“My pictures tell the story of the devastation,” he said.
The toppled buildings and cracked roads in his photos show that in addition to the climbing number of casualties, many of the Nepalese have lost their homes.
“There are thousands and thousands that are displaced now,” he said.
A village of tents has popped up on a golf course near the airport, and hospitals are filled with patients with broken limbs and internal bleeding. Largely, the need among those affected by the earthquake is water and shelter — even a tent or tarp.
As crews search for bodies and try to mend the injured, LaCasse said, he continues to document the effects.
“When people are in pain and agony, the last thing they want is a camera in their face,” he said. “I just know what the final outcome is — that I’m trying to get some help for them.”
Being behind the lens, he said, doesn’t mean that he feels their pain any less.
“You have to kind of remove yourself without taking anything personally,” he said. “But that’s hard to do, being a human.”
