Story highlights
- More than 1,800 deaths reported after Nepal earthquake
- Rescue efforts range from digging by hand to military deployments
(CNN)It started with neighbors and local officials digging with their hands through the rubble.
As soon as a deadly earthquake stopped rattling a swath of Nepal, before the scope of the damage was calculated, the digging began.
The magnitude-7.8 earthquake has killed more than 1,800 people, and the death toll is expected to rise.
One witness, Joe McEnness, captured a photo of police officers in Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, trying to dig survivors out of a collapsed building.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said its volunteers and staff were aiding rescue efforts and providing first aid to the injured.
The Red Cross opened a blood bank in Kathmandu.
Reports from Nepal indicated that hospitals were overflowing with patients and suffering from shortages.
One doctor in the outskirts of Kathmandu put out a plea for engineers to come to his hospital to help back up the electricity supply.
"Victims will be dying if we don't have it," Dr. Subhash Acharya tweeted.
At another hospital, CNN's Manesh Shrestha saw people being turned away as doctors focused on the most dire needs, he said. He saw people lying outside with broken bones and head injuries.
With communication limited, many turned to social media to ask for help locating their loved ones.
Google India launched a person finder website to work as a clearinghouse for information on those who are missing and those who have been found.
As of Saturday night in Nepal, Google was tracking some 1,400 records.
Facebook activated Safety Check, which alerts users of any friends who are in the disaster zone. Those in the affected area can use Facebook to alert their family and friends that they are OK.
Swift international response
The U.S. government is providing $1 million in immediate assistance, the U.S. Embassy in Nepal said.
American disaster response teams are also on their way to the country, the Embassy said via Twitter.
Nepal's neighbor India deployed teams to Kathmandu almost immediately.
Within hours of the quake, India had sent almost 300 personnel, along with search dogs and supplies.
The equipment arrived in Nepal via a series of cargo and airlift planes, including a C-130 Super Hercules, one IL-76, and two C-17 Globemasters, according to India's Ministry of Defense.
Two additional helicopters were deployed from India but turned back because of bad weather, the ministry said.
India said Sunday that it would dispatch 10 more aid flights to Nepal, along with 10 helicopters to assist in search-and-rescue efforts. Disaster management and medical personnel as well as mobile hospitals, food, water, blankets and medicine will be on the aid flights, Ministry of Defense spokesman Sitanshu Kar said.
Pakistan announced it is sending a medical team, a 30-bed hospital and search-and-rescue experts.
The Pakistani search team is specialized for rescues in natural disasters, officials said, and comes equipped with ground-penetrating radar and concrete cutters.
Pakistan is sending meals, water, medicine and other supplies. China, meanwhile, announced that it will send 40 rescuers and six search dogs.
Israel's military was preparing to send a team to assess the damage from the quake ahead of a humanitarian mission, the Israel Defense Forces said.
Photos: Powerful earthquake hits Nepal
Nepalese police officers clear debris from Durbar Square in Kathmandu on Sunday, May 3. A magnitude-7.8 earthquake centered less than 50 miles from Kathmandu rocked Nepal with devastating force Saturday, April 25. The earthquake and its aftershocks have turned one of the world's most scenic regions into a panorama of devastation, killing and injuring thousands.
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An injured Nepalese woman is carried by villagers toward an Indian army helicopter to be airlifted from Philim village in Gorkha district in Nepal on May 3.
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Members of the Tsayana family warm themselves next to a fire outside their damaged house on May 3 in Bhaktapur, Nepal.
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A woman receives comfort during the funeral of her mother, a victim of Nepal's deadly earthquake, on Friday, May 1, in Kathmandu.
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Hindu priests perform rituals during the cremations of victims at the Pashupatinath Temple on the banks of the Bagmati River in Kathmandu on May 1.
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People await aid from an Indian army helicopter in front of damaged homes in Kulgaun, Nepal, on May 1.
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An injured woman gets carried on a stretcher at Kathmandu's airport after being evacuated from Melamchi, Nepal, on May 1.
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A member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department guides his sniffing dog through a collapsed building in Kathmandu on Thursday, April 30.
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A teenage boy gets rushed to a hospital April 30 after being rescued from the debris of a building in Kathmandu days after the earthquake.
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A man is freed from the ruins of a hotel by French rescuers in the Gangabu area of Kathmandu on Tuesday, April 28. Reuters identified the man as Rishi Khanal.
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Nepalese military police search through rubble outside Kathmandu on April 28.
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People rest April 28 in a temporary housing camp in Kathmandu. Large encampments of tents have sprung up in open areas, including a wide space belonging to the military in the center of the capital.
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A family collects belongings from their home in Bhaktapur, Nepal, on Monday, April 27.
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Damaged buildings lean to the side in Kathmandu on April 27.
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Members of the Nepalese army retrieve bodies from a collapsed building in Bhaktapur near Kathmandu on April 27.
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Nepalese soldiers carry a wounded woman to a helicopter as they evacuate people from Trishuli Bazar, Nepal, on April 27.
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People charge their cell phones in an open area in Kathmandu on April 27.
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Emergency personnel evacuate an injured man to a waiting helicopter in Trishuli Bazar on April 27.
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An aerial view of the devastation in Kathmandu on April 27. The destruction in Nepal's capital is stark: revered temples reduced to rubble, people buried in the wreckage of their homes, hospitals short on medical supplies overflowing with patients.
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Residents rescue items from the debris of houses damaged in the quake in Kathmandu on April 27.
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An aervial view shows ruined buildings in Trishuli Bazar on April 27.
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A woman prays at a ruined temple in Kathmandu on April 27.
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People rest in temporary shelters in Kathmandu on April 27.
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Residents cycle over damaged roads on the outskirts of Kathmandu on Sunday, April 26.
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Four-month-old Sonit Awal is held up by Nepalese army soldiers after being rescued from the rubble of his house in Bhaktapur, Nepal, on April 26.
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The newspaper that provided photographs of the baby's rescue says the Nepalese army initially left the site, thinking the baby had not survived. Hours later when the infant's cries were heard, soldiers came back and rescued him.
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The newspaper adds the Nepalese Army had initially failed to rescue the baby and left the site thinking the baby had not survived. Hours later when the baby's cries were heard the army came back and rescued him.
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A woman cries after identifying the body of a relative in Bhaktapur on April 26.
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Men clear debris in Bhaktapur on April 26.
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A truck evacuates residents from Kathmandu on April 26.
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A Buddha statue is surrounded by debris on April 26 from a collapsed temple in the UNESCO world heritage site of Bhaktapur.
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An elderly woman is helped to her home after being treated for her injuries in Bhaktapur on April 26.
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Family members break down on April 26 during the cremation of a loved one killed in Bhaktapur.
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Smoke from funeral pyres fills the air at the Pashupatinath temple on the banks of Bagmati River in Kathmandu on April 26.
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Members of India's National Disaster Response Force look for survivors in Kathmandu on April 26.
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Rescue workers remove debris on April 26 as they search for victims in Bhaktapur.
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People look at the debris of one of the oldest temples in Kathmandu on April 26.
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People sleep on a street in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Saturday, April 25. A seemingly endless series of aftershocks continued to roil the area, further traumatizing survivors.
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Civilian rescuers carry a person on a stretcher in Kathmandu on April 25.
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People try to free a man from the rubble in Kathmandu on April 25. Cheers rose from the piles when people were found alive -- but mostly bodies turned up.
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Pedestrians walk past collapsed buildings in Kathmandu on April 25.
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Azim Afif, of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia climbing team, provided this photo of their Mount Everest base camp after it was ravaged by an avalanche triggered by the earthquake on April 25. All of Afif's five-member team survived.
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Rescuers clear rubble in Kathmandu's Basantapur Durbar Square on April 25.
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A temple on Hanumandhoka Durbar Square lies in ruins after an earthquake in Kathmandu on April 25.
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Dharahara, a tower dating back to 1832 that rose more than 60 meters (200 feet) and provided breathtaking views of Kathmandu and the surrounding Himalayas, collapsed in the earthquake on April 25.
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The hand of a statue is seen under debris in Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu.
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A Nepalese man and woman hold each other in Kathmandu's Basantapur Durbar Square on April 25.
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A victim of Nepal's earthquake lies in the debris of Dharahara after it collapsed on April 25 in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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Rescuers look for victims under a collapsed building in Kathmandu on April 25.
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Volunteers carry a body recovered from the debris of a collapsed building in Kathmandu.
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A victim's body is seen in the debris of the collapsed Dharahara on April 25.
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Emergency rescue workers carry a victim from Dharahara after the tower in Kathmandu collapsed on April 25.
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People free a man from the rubble of a destroyed building in Kathmandu.
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A man walks past a collapsed temple at Basantapur Durbar Square.
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Rescue workers clear debris in Kathmandu while searching for survivors.
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People huddle together outside a hospital in Kathmandu. Eyewitnesses said residents were scared and waiting for aftershocks to end.
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People search for survivors stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building in Kathmandu.
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Injured people receive treatment in Kathmandu. A CNN reporter said medics were focused on treating the most severely injured.
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Emergency rescue workers search for survivors in the debris of Dharahara on April 25.
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An injured child lies on the ground outside a hospital in Kathmandu on April 25.
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People help with rescue efforts at the site of a collapsed building in Kathmandu.
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An injured child receives treatment outside Medicare Hospital in Kathmandu on April 25. Residents, after a relentless series of aftershocks, have been remaining outdoors.
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The rubble of collapsed walls fills a street in Lalitpur, on the outskirts of Kathmandu, on April 25.
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