Tales of survival from Mount Everest, yet many local Nepalese family members devastated
JACKSON HEIGHTS (WABC) -- Among the tales of devastation and pain, are those of survival emerging from Mount Everest and Nepal.
"I've been climbing for 25 years so Mount Everest was a great little mountain to climb," said Mariusz Malkoski, a mountain climber.
That might be the understatement of the year.
42-year-old Mariusz Malkowski was about to climb Mount Everest, alone, without a Sherpa, and no oxygen, when Nepal's earthquake put a brutal stop to his ambitions.
The avalanche which followed took his breath away, literally.
"I've been in an avalanche before. This one had less snow but the air pressure and speed, humongous. I couldn't breathe for 30 to 40 seconds," Malkowski said.
His sponsor arranged for a helicopter to rescue him from Everest, a helicopter he shared with others who were injured.
By early Tuesday morning, the electrical engineer was back in Mendham, New Jersey, in a state of bewildered amazement that he survived and that he was home.
"When you see movies of the atomic bomb and the airflow this is what happens to the Basecamp, it was that bad," Malkowski said.
Of course crisscrossing the world is not that easy for most Nepalese New Yorkers who now feel handcuffed by helplessness.
Ngajo Lama lost her aunt and her relatives lost their homes. So she keeps busy praying and lighting candles at a makeshift memorial in Jackson Heights.
"Right now they need food and water, they're starving right now, and I'm here and I can't help," Lama said.
"My friend's mother has died," a resident said.
"I lose a family friend, a very good friend of mine," another resident said.
In Jackson Heights, Queens, where they have set up a shrine for the victims of Nepal, just about everyone has been hit by the devastating death toll.
Dawa Lama lost three members of his wife's family, including a baby girl.
"People cannot cremate. Everything is destroyed," Lama said.
"There no Mt. Everest, temples are gone, really bad," said Rosie Roji, a resident.
As mourners left a wall of comments, lit candles, and donate clothes and cash, it is clear compassion runs deep but so does the feeling of helplessness
"We just pray, collect money, and send it there," Lama said.
In Brooklyn, Zevi Steinhauser released a huge sigh of relief Monday morning when he finally learned his best friends were alive.
"If I didn't hear from them today at 3 p.m., I had a flight scheduled to leave," Steinhauser said.
Thankfully Danny Cole and Mendy Losh were spared. They were climbing up to the base camp at Mount Everest when the Avalanche struck.
These three childhood friends from Crown Heights take a big trip together every other year.
But because of personal reasons, Zevi couldn't go to Nepal. So he agonized at home until he learned his buddies were OK.
"Even now I wish I was there. I want to be with them," Steinhauser said.
Thousands of people have been trying to leave the airport in Kathmandu, including New Yorker Alex Diaz, who described the scene.
"I'm here at the airport in Kathmandu, it's as you can see total chaos behind security. People have checked in to many flights but we never know which ones are actually taking off until the plane lands," said Diaz. "Many flights are getting diverted to other airports and people have been sleeping here behind security for two or three days."
Additionally, another hiker from New Jersey survived the avalanche virtually uninjured. Mariusz Malkowski, of Mendham, was able to help several other hikers make their way to doctors, although he knows some of the people he helped did not ultimately survive.
Mariusz knows he is lucky. He shared his medivac flight out with a man from Brooklyn who had serious injuries and will require long-term hospitalization, as well as a female American who didn't survive the trip.
