Residents work to clear debris and damage from the earthquake in Sakhu, Nepal. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Nepal on Saturday, April 25. The earthquake originated outside the capital city of Kathmandu and has been followed by a series of powerful aftershocks. More than 5,000 people have died in the disaster. Saturday’s quake was more powerful than the 7.0 earthquake that shook Haiti in 2010. Nepal’s worst recorded earthquake in 1934 measured 8.0 and all but destroyed much of the country’s largest cities.

Helicopters finally brought food, temporary shelter and other aid to hamlets north of Kathmandu in the mountainous Gorkha District near the epicenter of Saturday’s 7.8-magnitude quake. Entire clusters of homes were reduced to piles of stone and splintered wood.