Aftershock and awe

KATHMANDU, Nepal

- Dazed and sleeping in the streets, tens of thousands of Nepalese braced against terrifying aftershocks yesterday while digging for survivors in the devastation wrought a day earlier by a massive earthquake that ripped across this Himalayan nation and killed more than 2,500 people.

Acrid smoke rose above the nation's most revered Hindu temple, where dozens of bodies were being cremated at any given time.

Aid groups received the first word from remote mountain villages - reports that suggested many communities perched on mountainsides were devastated or struggling to cope.

Landslides hindered rescue teams that tried to use mountain trails to reach those in need in the Gorkha region, where the quake was centered.

"Villages like this are routinely affected by landslides, and it's not uncommon for entire villages of 200, 300, up to 1,000 people to be completely buried by rockfalls," said Matt Darvas, a member of the aid group World Vision. "It will likely be helicopter access only."